You finally decided to look for an ADHD coach. That decision alone probably took months. Now you're sitting at your laptop, maybe in a coffee shop off Mass Ave or at your kitchen table in Broad Ripple, scrolling through search results that aren't making this any easier. There are a handful of therapists on the north side who mention ADHD coaching as a secondary service. There's a life coach in Carmel who seems to focus on general executive performance but lists ADHD on their website almost as an afterthought. There's someone in Fishers whose primary credential appears to be their own ADHD diagnosis and a collection of motivational Instagram posts. And then there are a few names scattered across the Unigov footprint, all 372 square miles of it, with no clear way to tell who's genuinely trained in ADHD coaching and who picked it up as a marketable niche.

Indianapolis is a city that tends to fly under the radar, even to the people who live here. We have one of the largest medical schools in the country. We host the single biggest single-day sporting event on the planet. Eli Lilly is headquartered downtown. And yet when it comes to finding specialized ADHD coaching, the options feel thinner than they should for a metro area of nearly 900,000 people. The healthcare infrastructure is strong, but coaching occupies a different space than clinical care, and the local market hasn't caught up to the demand.

The Midwestern instinct is to handle things on your own. Read some books, try a new planner, buckle down. But ADHD doesn't respond to determination alone, and that self-reliant approach can delay getting the support that would actually change things.

This guide breaks down what to look for in an ADHD coach, how to distinguish genuine expertise from good marketing, and how to make this decision without the process itself becoming another thing your brain stalls on.

What is the difference between ADHD coaching, therapy, and psychiatry

These three types of support get confused constantly, and in Indianapolis, where the healthcare landscape is dominated by large clinical systems like IU Health, Ascension St. Vincent, and Community Health Network, the distinction between coaching and clinical services can be especially fuzzy. Most people start with therapy or a psychiatry referral because that's what the system knows how to do. Therapy is valuable. But it fills a different role than coaching, and understanding that distinction matters before you start your search.

ADHD coaching is a collaborative, forward-looking partnership focused on action. You and your coach work together on the practical challenges that show up in your daily life. That means time management, task prioritization, follow-through on commitments, building routines that actually stick. Coaching takes how your brain works as the starting point and designs systems that account for that reality instead of pushing against it. The focus stays on the present and the future, on what you want to accomplish and what keeps getting in the way.

Therapy goes into the emotional and psychological layers underneath. A therapist helps you process past experiences, work through anxiety or depression (both of which commonly co-occur with ADHD), and understand emotional patterns that affect your daily functioning. Therapy is about understanding the "why" behind your struggles and the healing that comes from that exploration. In Indianapolis, where the therapy landscape is robust thanks to the IU School of Medicine's training pipelines, many adults with ADHD start here. That's a completely valid path. But therapy on its own doesn't always deliver the tactical, habit-level systems needed to manage executive dysfunction on a Wednesday afternoon when four projects are competing for attention.

Psychiatry handles the medical side. A psychiatrist can formally diagnose ADHD, prescribe medication, and oversee treatment from a neurological health perspective. If you're considering medication or still need a clinical diagnosis, psychiatry is where that happens. Indianapolis has strong psychiatric resources connected to the IU Health system and several private practices, but wait times for new patients can stretch into months.

These three are not competing services. Many adults with ADHD use a combination of all three. You might work with a psychiatrist to manage medication, see a therapist to process the emotional weight of going undiagnosed through your twenties or thirties, and partner with a coach to build the daily routines and systems that keep your work and personal life running. In Indiana, therapy and psychiatry are more likely to be partially covered by insurance depending on your plan. Coaching generally is not, though there are workarounds covered later in this guide.

The key distinction with coaching is that it's practical and present-tense. You're not analyzing your childhood. You're building a system so you actually respond to emails, get to appointments on time, and stop losing entire evenings to tasks that should take thirty minutes.

What credentials should an ADHD coach actually have

"ADHD coach" is not a protected title. No state license is required in Indiana. No board exam exists. Anyone can set up a website, call themselves an ADHD coach, and start accepting clients at $250 a session. In a city where Eli Lilly's presence means many residents have a baseline literacy about the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, it can be surprising to learn how unregulated the coaching space actually is. That lack of oversight means the quality range behind professional-looking websites is enormous.

So how do you figure out who's legitimate?

PAAC certification from the Professional Association of ADHD Coaches is one of the strongest signals you can look for. Coaches with PAAC certification have completed ADHD-specific training programs that meet rigorous educational standards, including supervised coaching hours and demonstrated competency in ADHD-related challenges. This is not a weekend certification. It represents a meaningful investment in specialized education and continuing professional development.

ICF credentials from the International Coaching Federation are the gold standard in the broader coaching world. An ICF-credentialed coach has completed substantial training, logged a required number of coaching hours, and passed a formal evaluation process. ICF credentials on their own don't prove ADHD expertise, but combined with ADHD-specific training, they show someone who takes their profession seriously and has been externally validated.

NBC-HWC certification (National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching) is another credible marker, particularly for coaches who integrate ADHD work into a broader health and wellness approach.

What about lived experience? Having ADHD yourself can make someone a more empathetic and intuitive coach. But lived experience without structured training and a clear methodology isn't sufficient on its own. The best coaches combine personal understanding of how ADHD affects daily life with evidence-based frameworks for actually helping people make progress. You want both.

Red flags to watch for:

• No specific training or credentials listed anywhere on their website

• The only stated qualification is personal experience with ADHD

• Promises of specific outcomes, like "eliminating procrastination" or "curing your focus issues"

• No mention of supervision, continuing education, or a defined methodology

• Sessions that sound like casual conversation with no underlying structure

Questions worth asking any coach you're considering:

• What ADHD-specific training have you completed, and through which program?

• Are you certified through PAAC, ICF, or another recognized professional body?

• Do you receive regular supervision or peer consultation on your coaching practice?

• What methodology or framework guides your coaching sessions?

• How do you measure progress with your clients?

• What does a typical engagement look like, and what kind of support exists between sessions?

A well-trained coach will welcome these questions. They've invested considerable time and money into their education and credentials, and they'll be happy to walk you through it. If someone gets defensive or evasive when you ask about qualifications, that's useful information.

Why does virtual coaching make sense in Indianapolis

The traditional coaching model assumes you'll find someone relatively nearby, coordinate schedules, and show up in person consistently. In Indianapolis, that model runs into some specific friction points that are worth thinking through.

Start with the geography. Indianapolis is one of the largest cities in the country by land area thanks to the 1970 Unigov consolidation that merged city and county government across Marion County. That means the city technically spans 372 square miles, but the population density is relatively low compared to coastal metros. If you live on the southeast side near Beech Grove and your coach's office is up in Carmel, that's a 30-to-45-minute drive depending on time of day. Even staying within I-465, going from Speedway to Irvington for a late afternoon appointment means navigating real distance. The IndyGo bus system is expanding, and the Red Line BRT has been a solid addition, but public transit doesn't connect most of the metro in a way that makes getting to a specific office convenient.

Indiana winters aren't as brutal as Chicago or Minneapolis, but January and February in Indy are still cold, gray, and uninviting enough that the idea of driving across town for a coaching appointment becomes easy to talk yourself out of. One cancellation turns into two, momentum stalls, and for anyone with ADHD where building and maintaining consistency is already one of the core challenges, that kind of disruption can undermine the entire process before it really begins.

Virtual coaching removes geography from the equation. You can meet with your coach from your home in Fountain Square, your office downtown, or a quiet room in your house in Noblesville. Sessions fit into the natural flow of your day. A 30-minute coaching call during a lunch break or after the kids go to bed is a fundamentally different commitment than blocking out two hours for travel and a session.

The deeper advantage is access to specialization. When you're limited to coaches who happen to practice in the Indianapolis metro, you're choosing based on proximity. When location doesn't matter, you can match based on what actually makes a difference: expertise in your specific challenges, coaching style that fits how you communicate, experience with your industry or life stage. A coach in another state who specializes in ADHD for logistics professionals or healthcare workers might be a far better fit than a generalist ten minutes from your house. Indianapolis has large workforces in both of those sectors, and finding a coach who understands the specific demands of shift work, supply chain management, or clinical environments can make a real difference.

Virtual coaching also makes it much easier to switch coaches if the fit isn't right. You don't restart a geographic search. You simply match with someone new and keep going.

What does quality ADHD coaching methodology actually look like

Methodology is where the real difference between coaches shows up. Two coaches can have similar credentials, similar pricing, and similar bios, but completely different approaches to how they work with clients. The gap between structured, evidence-based ADHD coaching and a loose weekly conversation is massive.

Evidence-based frameworks form the foundation of quality coaching. Effective ADHD coaches use approaches grounded in behavioral science. The COM-B model is one widely used framework. COM-B stands for Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation as three interconnected drivers of Behavior change. Instead of defaulting to "just try harder" or "buy a planner," a coach using COM-B helps you figure out whether a particular challenge is rooted in skill gaps (capability), environmental barriers (opportunity), or inconsistent drive (motivation), and then targets the actual issue. Implementation intentions are another research-backed technique. These are specific if/then plans designed to close the gap between what you intend to do and what you actually do. Instead of a vague plan like "I'll be better about deadlines," an implementation intention sounds like "When I sit down at my desk on weekday mornings, I'll spend ten minutes reviewing my priority list before opening Slack."

Structured sessions versus open-ended conversation is a major differentiator. In a structured approach, your coach arrives prepared, each session follows a clear framework, and there's a logical thread connecting one week to the next. Goals are tracked. Progress is measured. You're building on previous work rather than starting from scratch every time.

Between-session support matters more than people expect. ADHD doesn't operate on a weekly schedule. The challenges that coaching addresses show up constantly, not just during your 45-minute slot on Tuesdays. Quality coaching includes some form of ongoing support between sessions, whether that's check-ins, messaging access, or connection to a community of peers. This continuity helps new strategies actually stick instead of fading by midweek.

Executive dysfunction-specific approaches are essential. Generic coaching techniques frequently assume a baseline level of executive function (the set of mental skills that help you plan, focus, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks) that people with ADHD don't reliably have access to. An ADHD-specific methodology accounts for working memory challenges, time blindness, difficulty with task initiation, and the emotional toll of executive dysfunction. It designs systems around these realities instead of ignoring them.

Community and peer support adds something that isolated one-on-one coaching can't replicate. Connecting with other adults navigating similar ADHD challenges creates accountability, normalizes the experience, and opens the door to shared strategies that you might not discover on your own. Indianapolis has a strong healthcare and research presence through IU School of Medicine, and that academic environment reinforces why evidence-based, research-grounded approaches to ADHD support matter. A coaching methodology built on current behavioral science carries more weight than one built on a single practitioner's personal opinions.

Coach supervision and ongoing training is a detail most people never think to ask about, but it's important. Coaches who work alone with no external oversight can develop blind spots, drift from current best practices, or keep using outdated techniques long after the field has moved on. Regular supervision means a qualified professional is reviewing their work, offering feedback, and maintaining quality standards.

The challenge is that from the outside, none of this is visible. Two coaching websites can look nearly identical while representing completely different levels of rigor behind the scenes.

How much does ADHD coaching cost

Money matters, and coaching is a real financial commitment, so it's worth being straightforward about what to expect.

Nationally, individual ADHD coaching sessions typically range from $150 to $300 per session. Monthly arrangements for ongoing coaching fall between $300 and $600 per month, depending on session frequency, length, and the coach's level of experience. In Indianapolis, pricing tends to sit at the lower end of those national ranges. The cost of living here is significantly below what you'd see in coastal cities, and that's reflected in what local practitioners charge. But quality coaches with strong credentials and structured programs still charge enough to reflect their expertise.

The temptation to find the cheapest option is understandable. Budgets are a real constraint, especially in a market where many residents work in logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare roles where salaries are solid but not coastal-tech levels. But the lowest-cost coaches tend to be the newest to the field, with fewer credentials, less supervision, and less developed methodologies. That's not a judgment on their intentions. It's simply that coaches who have invested heavily in specialized ADHD training, PAAC or ICF certification, and ongoing professional development charge more because they bring more to the table.

Insurance typically does not cover coaching. This is true across Indiana and most other states. Coaching isn't classified as therapy or as a medical service, so it falls outside what most insurance plans will reimburse.

FSA and HSA funds can often be used for coaching. If your employer offers a Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account, ADHD coaching may qualify as an eligible expense. Many Indy-area employers, especially those in healthcare and the Lilly ecosystem, offer robust benefits packages that include FSA or HSA options. Paying with pre-tax dollars effectively reduces the real cost by 20 to 30 percent depending on your tax bracket.

When evaluating cost, it helps to think about what you're losing without support. Missed promotions because follow-through keeps slipping. Relationships strained by forgotten commitments. The mental weight of feeling like you're constantly running below your capacity. Effective coaching often pays for itself through improvements in the areas that matter most to your career and daily life.

How do you find and vet coaches in Indianapolis

With a solid understanding of what coaching is, what credentials matter, and what good methodology looks like, the practical search can begin. Even for people who enjoy research, this process gets old quickly.

Where to search:

The PAAC directory (Professional Association of ADHD Coaches) is the most targeted starting point. Every listed coach has met specific ADHD training requirements. The ICF directory is broader but useful for independently verifying that someone holds the credentials they claim. Central Indiana CHADD (Chapter 367) serves the greater Indianapolis metro and is a solid local resource. CHADD chapters can be helpful for recommendations, community support, and firsthand experiences from other adults with ADHD in the area. They hold support group meetings and educational events that can help you learn more about what's available locally.

You might also hear about coaches through the IU Health system, Riley Hospital connections, or word-of-mouth through Lilly or other major employers. These informal referral paths can surface names, but you still need to vet anyone you find through these channels with the same rigor.

The vetting process:

Once you have a shortlist, the real work starts. You'll want to review each coach's website carefully, verify their credentials independently rather than just trusting what they've listed online, schedule consultation calls, and try to assess fit from a brief conversation. Most coaches offer a free or low-cost introductory call, and that's your window to ask the credential and methodology questions outlined earlier in this guide.

During a consultation call, pay attention to:

• Whether they ask about your specific situation and challenges, or immediately pivot to selling their package

• How clearly they can explain their methodology and framework

• Whether they mention supervision or continuing education

• How the conversation feels. Is it comfortable and natural, or pressured and rehearsed?

• How transparent they are about pricing, session structure, and what to expect

When the first match doesn't work:

Nobody talks about this part enough. What happens when you go through the full search process, commit to a coach, pay for a few sessions, and then realize the fit isn't right? You're back at the beginning. New search, new consultation calls, new financial commitment to test another option. For anyone with ADHD, restarting that research cycle feels about as appealing as cleaning out the garage.

The whole burden lands on you. Even with good directories and the Central Indiana CHADD chapter, you're the one doing all the research, making all the calls, verifying all the claims, assessing all the intangibles of fit, and starting over if it doesn't pan out. That's a significant ask for anyone, and it's a particularly heavy lift when the executive function challenges you need help with are the same ones making a sustained research project feel overwhelming.

Why a Shimmer ADHD Coach might be the better option

Every frustration described above is exactly why Shimmer exists. We built it because we've been through the same exhausting search ourselves and knew there had to be a better way to connect adults with ADHD to coaches who are actually qualified to help.

The vetting is done before you ever show up. Shimmer's coaches go through a selection process with a 4% acceptance rate. Every coach holds ADHD-specific credentials, whether that's PAAC certification or equivalent specialized training. They don't get hired and left to figure things out on their own. Shimmer coaches receive ongoing supervision and continuing education, which means their practice is consistently reviewed and held to a high standard. The methodology is consistent across the platform, grounded in behavioral science frameworks designed specifically for how ADHD brains work.

Matching is built into the system. Instead of spending weeks doing your own research and hoping you pick well, Shimmer matches you with a coach based on your specific needs, goals, and preferences. If the match isn't right, you switch. No awkward conversation. No restarting your search from zero. No financial penalty for trying someone different. You simply match with another coach and continue where you left off. This is a fundamentally different model from the traditional approach where changing coaches means beginning the entire process over again.

The methodology extends beyond weekly sessions. Shimmer's coaching approach is rooted in science-backed frameworks for behavior change and executive function support. Sessions are structured, goal-oriented, and connected to each other in a deliberate progression. But the support doesn't disappear between appointments. Shimmer includes community access where you connect with other members working through similar challenges. That combination of expert one-on-one coaching and peer community creates accountability and shared experience that a single weekly session simply can't provide on its own.

The risk is minimal. Shimmer offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Pricing is transparent and clearly communicated before you commit. You know what you're paying and what you're getting before you start. Compare that with the traditional approach of paying $200 or more for an initial session with someone you found through a Google search, only to realize after two or three sessions that their approach doesn't work for how your brain operates.

Virtual-first means all of Indianapolis is covered equally. Whether you're downtown near the Mile Square, out in Speedway by the track, in Carmel or Fishers, down in Greenwood, or anywhere else across the 372 square miles of Unigov, you get the same access to quality coaching. No driving across town. No choosing between a convenient location and the right expertise. Just consistent, expert support that fits into your life wherever you are in the metro.

Shimmer's coaches work with adults across the industries and backgrounds that define the Indianapolis economy. Healthcare workers navigating demanding IU Health or Community Health Network schedules. Logistics and operations professionals at FedEx or Amazon managing high-volume, fast-paced environments with no room for missed steps. Engineers and life sciences professionals in the Lilly corridor dealing with complex project management. Tech workers in the growing downtown and Carmel startup scenes balancing the constant context-switching of development work. The matching process accounts for these differences so you work with someone who understands the specific demands of your world.

How do you get started with ADHD coaching

Taking the first step can feel like a big deal, and that's completely normal. If you've been reading about ADHD coaching for a while without pulling the trigger, you have plenty of company. Decision paralysis around getting help for ADHD is one of the more common patterns we see, and yes, the irony isn't lost on us.

Getting started is simpler than the research process makes it seem. You sign up, get matched with a coach, and have your first session. That initial conversation is focused on your coach understanding you: your goals, your challenges, what you've already tried, what hasn't worked. You don't need to show up with a polished list of objectives or a detailed personal history. Your coach is trained to guide that conversation and help you figure out where to focus first.

The early sessions are about building a foundation. You and your coach will identify what matters most to you right now and start developing strategies tailored to how your brain actually operates. Expect it to feel exploratory at first. You're testing different approaches, learning what sticks, and building a working relationship with someone who's genuinely in your corner.

Keep your expectations realistic. Coaching is not a quick fix. You won't walk out of your first session with every executive function challenge resolved. What you will have is a structured starting point, a coach who understands ADHD at a deep level, and a framework for building consistent progress over time. Most members start noticing meaningful shifts within the first few weeks as new habits and systems begin to take hold.

If you're ready to stop researching and start working with a vetted, expert ADHD coach who actually understands how your brain works, Shimmer is a good place to begin.