You finally decided to look for an ADHD coach. Maybe you spent the morning staring at a project brief in your office on Poydras Street and realized three hours had vanished into nothing productive. Maybe you missed another deadline at work and covered for it with charm and a last-minute sprint that left you depleted. Maybe you sat down to organize your week and ended up deep in a rabbit hole about the history of streetcar routes. Whatever the tipping point was, you opened a browser and searched for ADHD coaching in New Orleans. And that is where things got complicated.

The search results were a mix. A few therapists in the Central Business District who mention coaching somewhere on their website. A life coach in Metairie who recently added ADHD to her list of specialties. Someone in Baton Rouge who says they serve the greater New Orleans area virtually. A couple of directory listings with professional headshots and vague language about helping you unlock your potential. No obvious way to tell which of these people have legitimate, specialized ADHD training and which just see an underserved market. You bookmarked a few, told yourself you would call them tomorrow, and that was two weeks ago. Sound familiar?

This guide will walk you through what ADHD coaching actually is, how it differs from therapy and psychiatry, which credentials separate genuine specialists from generalists, what strong coaching methodology looks like, and how to make a confident decision without letting the search become another project that stalls out on your to-do list.

What makes ADHD coaching different from therapy or psychiatry

New Orleans has a well-established healthcare ecosystem. Ochsner Health System, LCMC Health, Tulane Medical Center, and LSU Health Sciences Center all serve the metro area, and the city is generally comfortable with conversations about mental health. But when it comes to ADHD support specifically, the differences between coaching, therapy, and psychiatry are often blurred in ways that lead people to the wrong type of help first.

ADHD coaching is focused on the present and the future. It is a collaborative partnership where you and your coach build practical strategies, habits, and systems for tackling the challenges that ADHD creates in your daily life. Coaching is about action. You identify what you want to accomplish, figure out what keeps getting in the way, and develop personalized tools for handling things like time management, task initiation, prioritization, and follow-through. A good ADHD coach works with the way your brain actually functions instead of expecting you to muscle through systems designed for neurotypical people. Neurotypical is a term that simply refers to someone whose brain processes attention and information in the way considered standard or typical.

Therapy addresses the emotional and psychological layers underneath the surface. A therapist helps you process past experiences, work through anxiety or depression (both of which show up alongside ADHD at high rates), and understand emotional patterns. In a city like New Orleans, where the pace of life, the social culture, and the economic pressures create a unique kind of stress, many adults with ADHD carry years of frustration or shame from trying to keep up without understanding why everything felt harder. Therapy is the right space for that kind of work. But therapy alone does not always give you the concrete, tactical systems for managing your workload or stopping the cycle of missed commitments.

Psychiatry handles the medical side. A psychiatrist can formally diagnose ADHD, prescribe medication, and manage your treatment plan. If you are exploring whether medication might help or you need an official diagnosis, that is the clinical starting point.

These three forms of support work together rather than competing with each other. Many adults with ADHD benefit from a combination. You might see a psychiatrist for medication management, a therapist to process the emotional weight of living undiagnosed for years, and a coach to build the daily systems that hold your professional and personal life together. In Louisiana, therapy and psychiatry are often at least partially covered by insurance depending on your plan, while coaching typically is not. We will get into cost and workarounds later in the guide.

The key thing to understand is that coaching is forward-looking and tactical. You are not unpacking your past. You are building a concrete plan for managing your energy, keeping track of projects, and following through on the things that matter to you.

What credentials should an ADHD coach actually have

Before you start evaluating anyone, you need to know one critical fact: the title "ADHD coach" is completely unregulated. Louisiana has no licensing requirement for coaching, no state board, no required exam, and no minimum training hours. Anyone can put up a website, list ADHD coaching as a service, and start charging clients this afternoon. In a city where the economy is diversifying rapidly and the wellness market is growing alongside the influx of young professionals and entrepreneurs, that means the quality range is enormous. And from the outside, it is nearly impossible to tell who is genuinely qualified.

So how do you protect yourself?

PAAC certification is one of the strongest signals. PAAC stands for the Professional Association of ADHD Coaches. Coaches who hold PAAC certification have completed rigorous ADHD-specific training programs, logged supervised coaching hours, and demonstrated real competency in working with ADHD-related challenges. This is not a weekend workshop or an online course you complete in a few hours. It represents a significant commitment to specialized education.

ICF credentials are another reliable indicator. The ICF, or International Coaching Federation, is the most widely recognized credentialing body in the coaching profession overall. An ICF-credentialed coach has completed extensive training hours, accumulated a minimum number of client coaching hours, and passed a formal evaluation. ICF credentials on their own do not guarantee ADHD expertise, but when paired with ADHD-specific training, they indicate someone who takes professional development seriously.

NBC-HWC certification is also worth understanding. NBC-HWC stands for National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. It is a board certification that indicates training in evidence-based coaching techniques, and when combined with ADHD specialization, it provides an additional layer of verified competence.

Lived experience with ADHD can make a coach more empathetic and intuitive. Many excellent coaches have ADHD themselves and bring personal understanding of what you are dealing with. But lived experience without professional training and a structured methodology is not sufficient on its own. You want someone who brings both personal understanding and evidence-based frameworks to their practice.

Red flags to watch for:

• No specific credentials or training programs listed on their website

• The only stated qualification is personal experience with ADHD

• Promises of guaranteed outcomes like eliminating procrastination or curing distractibility

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

• An approach that sounds more like friendly conversation than structured support

Questions to ask any coach you are considering:

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

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

• Do you receive regular supervision or participate in peer consultation?

• What methodology or framework guides your coaching sessions?

• How do you track and measure client progress?

• What does support look like between sessions?

A qualified coach will welcome all of these questions. They have invested significant time and money in building their expertise and will be glad to walk you through it. If someone becomes evasive or defensive when you ask about their training, take that as a serious warning sign.

Why does virtual coaching work well for ADHD in New Orleans

New Orleans is not a city where you have dozens of specialized ADHD coaches scattered across every neighborhood. The local options are limited, and the ones that do exist tend to concentrate in the Central Business District or the Uptown corridor. If you live in Algiers, the West Bank, New Orleans East, or anywhere in the surrounding parishes like Jefferson, St. Bernard, or St. Tammany, getting to an in-person appointment during a workday adds real logistical friction. And if the coach who looks most promising is actually based in Baton Rouge or across the lake in Covington, you are looking at a serious commute before you even sit down for a session.

Virtual coaching removes geography from the equation entirely. You can work with your coach from your living room in the Marigny, a home office in Lakeview, your desk in the CBD, or your kitchen table in Kenner. Sessions fit into the natural shape of your day rather than requiring you to build an hour of transit time around them.

But the bigger advantage is about quality of match, not convenience. When you are no longer limited to the handful of coaches who happen to practice within the New Orleans metro, you can match based on what genuinely matters: their experience with your specific type of challenge, their coaching style, their understanding of your industry or life stage. A coach who specializes in supporting healthcare professionals with ADHD might be an excellent fit for someone working at Ochsner. Someone with deep experience coaching entrepreneurs through executive function challenges could be exactly what a founder in the growing New Orleans startup scene needs, even if that coach is based in another state entirely.

Virtual coaching also supports consistency, which is one of the hardest things to maintain when you have ADHD. Every logistical hurdle becomes another reason to reschedule. When your session is a video call you can take from wherever you happen to be, the friction drops significantly. You show up more often. The coaching relationship builds momentum. Progress compounds over time instead of stalling out every time life gets hectic.

And if a coaching match turns out not to be the right fit, pivoting is straightforward. You are not restarting a geographic search or settling for someone just because they happen to be nearby. You match with a different coach and keep moving forward.

What does a strong ADHD coaching methodology look like

Methodology is the invisible difference between coaching that creates lasting change and coaching that feels like a nice conversation you forget about by the next morning. Two coaches can have similar websites, similar pricing, and similar bios, but their actual approaches might be completely different underneath the surface.

Evidence-based frameworks form the backbone of quality coaching. One widely used model is the COM-B framework, which breaks behavior change into three components: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. Rather than giving generic advice like "just use a planner" or "try setting more alarms," a coach using COM-B helps you identify whether a particular challenge comes from a skill gap (capability), an environmental barrier (opportunity), or a drive issue (motivation), and then addresses the actual root cause. Another evidence-based tool is implementation intentions, which are specific if/then plans designed to bridge the gap between wanting to do something and actually doing it. Instead of "I will work on my presentation this week," an implementation intention looks like "When I sit down at my desk after lunch on Tuesday, I will open the slide deck and write three slides before checking my email."

Structured sessions versus open conversation is one of the biggest dividing lines between quality coaching and everything else. In a structured approach, each session follows a framework. Your coach prepares. Goals carry forward from previous conversations. Progress is tracked over time. You are building on a foundation week after week rather than starting from scratch each session. Open-ended conversation can feel supportive in the moment, but without structure, it rarely produces consistent behavior change.

Between-session support matters more than most people realize. ADHD does not pause between your weekly coaching calls. New habits are fragile. Motivation fluctuates constantly. Quality coaching includes some form of ongoing connection between sessions, whether that is messaging, quick accountability check-ins, or access to a community of peers. That continuity is often what determines whether a new strategy actually sticks and becomes part of your routine.

Executive dysfunction-specific design is essential for ADHD coaching to work. Executive dysfunction refers to difficulties with the brain's management system: working memory, planning, task initiation, emotional regulation, and time awareness. Generic coaching techniques often assume a baseline level of executive function that people with ADHD do not consistently have. A methodology built specifically for ADHD accounts for these realities and designs systems around them rather than pretending they do not exist.

Peer community and shared learning add something that isolated one-on-one sessions cannot replicate. Connecting with other adults who face similar challenges creates accountability, normalizes the experience, and generates practical strategies you might not discover on your own. Hearing that someone in a similar professional situation found a particular approach helpful carries a different kind of weight than hearing it from a coach alone.

Ongoing coach supervision is something most people never think to ask about, but it is a significant quality indicator. Coaches who practice in isolation with no external oversight can develop blind spots or drift into outdated approaches. Regular supervision means a qualified professional is reviewing their work, providing feedback, and keeping them accountable to a consistent standard.

The frustrating reality is that none of these methodological differences are visible from a website or a directory listing. Two coach profiles can look nearly identical while representing very different levels of rigor. The only way to distinguish them is to ask the right questions, and now you know what those questions are.

How much does ADHD coaching typically cost

Cost matters, and it is better to go in with clear expectations than to be caught off guard after your first session.

Nationally, individual ADHD coaching sessions range from about $150 to $300 per session. Monthly coaching packages, which typically include regular sessions plus some level of between-session support, tend to fall between $300 and $600 per month. Those ranges vary based on the coach's experience, credentials, session length, and the amount of support included between calls.

The instinct to look for the cheapest option is understandable, particularly in New Orleans where the cost of living is rising and household budgets feel tighter than they used to. But cost and credential depth tend to go hand in hand. Coaches who have invested thousands of dollars in ADHD-specific training, ICF certification, supervised hours, and continuing education charge more because their overhead is higher and their expertise runs deeper. That does not mean the most expensive coach is automatically the best, but consistently choosing the lowest price point increases your odds of working with someone who has minimal specialized training.

Insurance generally does not cover ADHD coaching. Coaching is not classified as therapy or a medical service under most plans, and Louisiana does not currently mandate coaching coverage.

FSA and HSA accounts 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. This lets you pay with pre-tax dollars, effectively reducing your real cost by 20 to 30 percent depending on your tax bracket. With major employers like Ochsner, Entergy, and the various universities in the metro area often offering strong benefits packages, this is worth checking into.

When evaluating cost, it helps to weigh it against the cost of not getting support. Stalled career progress because you cannot consistently deliver. Strained relationships from forgotten commitments. The mental and emotional weight of feeling like you are underperforming despite knowing you are capable of more. Effective coaching pays for itself when it helps you show up reliably in the areas that matter most to you.

How do you find and evaluate coaches in New Orleans

With a solid understanding of what coaching is, which credentials matter, and what strong methodology looks like, the practical search can begin. New Orleans has its own specific challenges that are worth understanding before you dive in.

Where to look:

The PAAC directory (Professional Association of ADHD Coaches) is the most targeted starting point. Every coach listed there has met specific ADHD training requirements. The ICF directory is broader but useful for independently verifying credentials. CHADD, which stands for Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, does not currently have a dedicated chapter in New Orleans, but their national website offers virtual support groups and resources that can be valuable for connecting with the broader ADHD community and getting recommendations.

The New Orleans-specific challenge:

New Orleans is a mid-size city with a strong identity but a relatively small pool of specialized ADHD coaching professionals. The healthcare infrastructure is robust through systems like Ochsner and LCMC, but the coaching market is much thinner. Your search results will likely pull in listings from Baton Rouge, the Northshore, and generalists across southern Louisiana who serve the area virtually. Without a dense local market to create competition and drive quality, the few options that do show up require especially careful vetting. And because the local wellness and personal development scene is growing alongside the city's influx of young professionals and entrepreneurs, you will also encounter life coaches and wellness coaches who have added ADHD to their offerings without deep specialization in it.

The vetting process:

Once you have a shortlist, go beyond what their website says. Verify credentials independently through the PAAC and ICF directories. Schedule consultation calls, which most coaches offer for free or at a reduced rate. Use that conversation to ask the credential and methodology questions outlined earlier in this guide.

During a consultation, pay attention to:

• Whether they ask about your specific challenges or move straight into pitching a package

• How clearly they explain their methodology

• Whether they mention supervision, continuing education, or structured frameworks

• How natural and comfortable the conversation feels

• Whether pricing, session structure, and expectations are transparent from the start

When a match does not work out:

This happens more often than anyone talks about. You go through the whole search, commit to a coach, and after a few sessions, realize the fit is off. Maybe their approach does not align with how you process things. Maybe they lack depth in the area where you need the most help. Now you are back at the beginning. New search. New vetting calls. New financial risk. New decision fatigue. For someone with ADHD, restarting that kind of open-ended research project can feel nearly impossible.

Even with the right directories and a thoughtful approach, the entire weight of research, vetting, and risk sits on your shoulders. That is a heavy lift for anyone, and it is an especially difficult one when the executive function challenges you are trying to get help with are the same ones making sustained research feel exhausting.

Why a Shimmer ADHD coach might be the better option

Every frustration described above is exactly why Shimmer exists. We built it because we have been through that same exhausting search ourselves and knew there had to be a better way.

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

Matching is built into the system. Instead of spending weeks scrolling through sparse directory listings and hoping for the best, Shimmer matches you with a coach based on your specific needs, preferences, and goals. If the match is not right, you switch. No awkward conversation. No penalty. No restarting the search from scratch. You match with someone new and keep building momentum. This alone fundamentally changes the experience compared to the traditional model, where a bad fit means starting the entire process over.

The methodology extends beyond your weekly session. Shimmer's coaching approach is rooted in science-backed frameworks for behavior change and executive function support. Sessions are structured, goal-oriented, and connected from one to the next. But the support does not disappear between calls. 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 a layer of accountability and shared learning that a single weekly session on its own cannot provide.

The financial risk is minimal. Shimmer offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Pricing is transparent and published upfront, so you know exactly what you are committing to before you begin. Compare that to the traditional path where you might spend $300 on a first session with a coach you found through a directory, only to realize after two or three sessions that their approach does not work for your brain, and then face the prospect of spending more money to try again with someone else.

Virtual-first means all of New Orleans is covered equally. Whether you live in the French Quarter, work in the CBD, are based in a home office in Gentilly, or commute from the West Bank or Slidell, you get the same quality of coaching without geography being a factor. No working around limited local availability. No settling for a less-than-ideal match because they happen to be the only option nearby. Just consistent, expert support that fits into your life where it already is.

Shimmer coaches work with professionals across every industry that defines the New Orleans economy. Healthcare workers managing cognitive overload in demanding hospital environments. Entrepreneurs building businesses in the city's growing startup ecosystem. Hospitality and tourism professionals navigating unpredictable schedules and high-energy demands. University staff and researchers at Tulane, UNO, or Xavier balancing academic responsibilities alongside ADHD. Energy sector professionals at companies like Entergy managing detail-heavy, high-stakes work. The matching process takes these differences into account so you work with someone who understands your professional and personal context.

Members consistently describe the difference as significant compared to previous coaching experiences. The structured methodology, the ongoing accountability between sessions, and the ability to switch coaches without friction combine to create something that works with ADHD instead of asking you to power through a broken process just to get help.

How do you get started with ADHD coaching

Taking the first step can feel like a big decision. If you have been researching ADHD coaching for weeks or months without actually committing, you are in very good company. That kind of decision paralysis is one of the most common ADHD patterns, and there is a real irony in the fact that the challenges you need help with are the same ones making it hard to seek help in the first place.

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 about your coach getting to know you: your goals, your challenges, what you have tried before, and where you want to focus first. You do not need to arrive with a polished list of objectives or a detailed history of your ADHD journey. Your coach is trained to guide that conversation and help you figure out where to begin.

The first few 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 works. Expect it to feel exploratory at first. You are testing approaches, finding out what sticks, and building trust with someone who is going to be in your corner consistently.

Set realistic expectations. Coaching is not an overnight fix. You will not leave your first session with every executive function challenge resolved. What you will have is a structured starting point, a knowledgeable partner who understands ADHD deeply, and a framework for making steady, compounding progress. Most members start noticing meaningful shifts within the first few weeks as new strategies take hold and small wins begin building on each other.

If you have been circling this decision for a while, that is completely normal. The fact that you have read this far says something about how ready you are. You do not need to have everything figured out before you start. That is what the coaching is for.