Resources
Listing of organizations or publications is not meant as an endorsement of products or services.
The resources section is divided into two parts.
- Web site resources, broken down by category
- Books, with links to Amazon.com
Web Sites
General Info
Coaching Organizations
Life Coach Training and Certification
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AD/HD coaches are professional coaches who have mastered the basic skill set of all general personal and professional coaches. AD/HD coaches have then gone on to acquire specialized knowledge and a specialized skill set that allows them to specialize in working with individuals with AD/HD. Most skilled AD/HD coaches are also certified life coaches.
Professional Organizers
Government Agencies
Other
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For information specific to understanding and helping girls/women with AD/HD.
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For information specific to understanding and helping girls/women with AD/HD.
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For information on the Journal of Attention Disorders.
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Information helpful to college students.
Books
There are many books ACA would like to recommend to people interested in learning more about ADD coaching and ADD in general. We will add more books to the following list on a regular basis. We have built a partnership with Amazon.com. To purchase and/or see reader reviews and other information, click on the title of the book next to its image.
Driven to Distraction
Author: John J. Ratey, Edward M. Hallowell
Publisher: Touchstone (1995)
Binding: Paperback, 336 pages
Driven to Distraction, which came out in 1994 and reached the New York Times best-sellers list, was one of the first books that talked about ADD throughout the life span in a down-to-earth, informative yet entertaining manner. Filled with case studies, quizzes and lists of ways to manage ADD symptoms, reader interest is maintained as learning takes place almost unnoticed. It was also in Driven to Distraction that the first mention of "coaching" as an option for managing the symptoms of attention deficit disorder appears in the literature. Hallowell and Ratey are both psychiatrists who have treated thousands of patients with attention deficit disorder and in the process reached the conclusion that coaching is a "good fit" for the ADD brain.
This book will help anyone wanting to know more about attention deficit disorder.
Shadow Syndromes
Author: John J. Ratey
Publisher: Bantam (1998)
Binding: Paperback, 400 pages
Shadow Syndromes by Drs. John Ratey and Catherine Johnson is about "the biology of everyday life" of people with mild forms of conditions including but-not-limited-to depression, attention deficit disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety. In well-written, easy-to-read prose, the authors guide readers toward an understanding of the biological foundations of conditions long thought to be psychological in origin. "Knowledge brings power" is the basic premise of this book.
It is the intention of the authors that readers learn to be biologically responsible for themselves - so they can live the lives they desire, choosing the ways they wish to respond to the stimuli in their lives, rather than being biologically "compelled" to behave in particular ways. The mandate of this book is to become educated about our particular brains so we can better manage the symptoms of our shadow syndromes.
This book is a stepping stone on the bridge toward the medicine of the future. Ratey and Johnson are in search of the truth about shadow syndromes, for they know that ultimately "the truth will set you free."
Simply Live it Up
Author: Charlotte Ward, Teri-E Belf
Publisher: Purposeful Press (1997)
Binding: Paperback, 224 pages
Authors Belf and Ward do not characterize Simply Live It Up as a book about coaching. The audience they target is "people who place a strong value on personal growth and development and are ready to "simply live it up". However, since there are currently no books in print about ADD coaching or personal and professional coaching (several books are in progress), this is ACA's choice in the "coaching" category.
The stated purpose of this book is to offer "extremely practical, down-to-earth brief "recipes" to integrate spirit and humanness in a productive way, along with brief solutions tested and proven successful with thousands of clients.
Readers should know that although the book isn't "about" coaching, Teri-E Belf is an established coach and trainer of coaches and many of the techniques, exercises and Brief Solutions can be used very effectively in a coaching context by people engaged in professional coaching, peer coaching and self-coaching.
Simply Live It Up is well written and well organized and packed full of information that will be of interest to coaches and people who want to learn more about coaching.
In the Mind's Eye
Author: Thomas G. West
Publisher: Prometheus Books (1997)
Binding: Hardcover, 397 pages
With an end-view on computer visualization technologies of the future, In The Mind's Eye explores "visual" thinking and processing styles against a backdrop of famous people with learning disabilities who were visual processors. In so doing Thomas West distances himself from conventional thinking about learning disabilities and ADD which suggests that individuals succeed in spite of their differences. West speculates that visual thinkers like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lewis Carroll, Winston Churchill, William Butler Yeats, and Leonardo da Vinci succeeded because of their differences.
This book presents a real challenge to the American education system because it suggests that individuals should be supported and encouraged as they explore the world using modalities and processing styles that are unique to themselves - a lesson educators should have learned a long time ago from years of trying to force lefties to write right-handed! If West is correct, and visual processing has contributed significantly to our past and is necessary to acquiring the skills of the future, we need to educate the educators now.