DocTom Coaching for ADHD Adults and College Students DocTom Coaching for ADHD Adults and College Students
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Any of these sound familiar? I can help!

  • Trouble with time awareness

  • Unfinished projects / work 

  • Persistent worry about what isn't done

  • Constant anxiety about what you've forgotten to do

  • Feedback like, “doesn’t work to their potential” 

  • Job loss or sense that 'things aren't going well' 

  • Can't seem to get your 'stuff' together

  • Trouble managing money​

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These are common impacts on those of us with ADHD. The good news is that I can help you overcome these and many other ADHD-related challenges. 
 
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 With my extensive background in education and a few decades of work on my own ADHD brain, I can help you prioritize, organize, and develop agency so you can better reach your academic, personal, and professional goals.​​

ADHD Coaching for College Students and Adults message: Know and Love Your ADHD Brain

Know and Love Your ADHD Brain

Interested? Set up a free 30-minute conversation - no obligations or pressure.

How Can I Help You?

  • Discover goals that are authentically meaningful to you

  • Identify how your ADHD creates barriers to reaching your goals​

  • Design solutions, routines, and strategies to address those barriers

  • Regularly evaluate progress towards overcoming barriers

  • Deepen and Expand your solutions, routines, and strategies

  • Normalize your ADHD experience to shift negative self-stories to productive self-awareness

  • Reduce overwhelm and increase time spent doing 'things-that-matter-to-me'

  • Find resources and communities that share similar challenges and are focused on learning and growth

Interested? Set up a free 30-minute conversation - no obligations or pressure.

How Does it Work?

As a school principal, I knew that the expertise to design effective learning environments was usually in the teachers, and that my job was to help them identify the skills and mindsets that best supported their unique teaching selves. That is also true for coaching. I will not solve your problems. But I am a voracious listener, and I will ask questions that help you clarify the haziness that often comes with ADHD. I can also help you reach your vision of your best self by developing goals and a plan that aligns with the personal and / or professional things that matter to you. 

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My own work over the last 20 years has taught me that regular checkpoints are critical to my own success. If you work with me, I recommend initial weekly or bi-weekly session of 50 minutes, where we will identify what has your attention, celebrate progress towards your goals, identify barriers to success, and revisit goals. Each session should end with you having a clear intention - meaningful to you - to work on until our next session.​

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Sessions are 50 minutes and are $150. While coaching fees are not covered by health insurance, they may be tax-deductible. 

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It's worth noting that this is a bittersweet business, because my goal is for you to feel empowered and skilled enough that you no longer feel the need to work with me because you’ve got it! 

Interested? Set up a free 30-minute conversation - no obligations or pressure.

My Approach to Coaching

My approach to coaching is grounded in empathy and Universal Design (for Living). I won’t solve your problems. But I will help you solve and grow from them. I am a voracious listener, and will ask questions that help clarify the haziness that often comes with ADHD, uncovering the habits of mind and practices you bring to your daily lived experience. Then, I will help you convert that clarity into specific goals and a plan to realize your best self as you:

  • Reconceptualize the gifts of your ADHD mind

  • Develop realistic awareness of your habits of mind and practices during your daily lived experiences

  • Meet goals that matter to you and that steer you towards your best self

  • Adopt a Learning Design-Based approach:

    • Identify barriers to learning and success found in your daily lived experiences

    • Problem-solve to reduce barriers' impact

    • Learn and grow from those solutions

Interested? Set up a free 30-minute conversation - no obligations or pressure.

About Me.

Tom Higginbotham

I was identified as being impacted by ADHD in my early 30’s.  Prior to then, I had always been resourceful in masking the impact ADHD had on my interactions with the world, but when the responsibilities of my work and growing family began to feel like ‘too much,’ I sought help. In the intervening years of coaching and growth, I have come to appreciate not only the unique gifts that my neurodivergent brain offers, but also the slow-burn trauma that comes with interacting with a world governed by neurotypicality. 

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After years of work, I better understand the roles and contexts that enable me to realize my best self, and those that require a heavier lift to find success. That awareness is the first bedrock in my coaching self. 

 

The second bedrock comes from my approach to helping people - focusing on strengths and identifying where strategies need to be consciously developed. As a school administrator, I often got to talk with people in trying moments - students, certainly, but also teachers and parents. I learned pretty quickly that when people were encouraged to develop a realistic awareness of their actions, along with a pragmatic path forward, the long-term impact was markedly better compared to when the focus was some version of 'actions beget consequences,' and it's the consequences that 'teach.' This is especially relevant for ADHD minds and our 'why can't I just...just' mindset.  Through coaching, I can help you identify your self-story and the degree to which you are recognizing your own strengths in your daily experiences. 

 

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Environmental & Forest Biology, SUNY ESF

Master of Science in Teaching, Secondary Life Science, SUNY Potsdam

Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction, Boston College

 

CAREER (1995 - 2022)

Outdoor Education Teacher

Middle & High School Math & Science Teacher

Middle & High School Assistant Principal

Elementary & Middle School Principal

University Lecturer, Teacher Education​

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OTHER INFORMATION:

Obsessed with backyard ice rink. See? 

Have 3 kids, all girls, 12, 14, & 17

4th-leading scorer on my Thursday night old man soccer team

Know at least 2 good jokes... and many bad (dad) ones. 

Interested? Set up a free 30-minute conversation - no obligations or pressure.

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