Coaching ADHD and Autistic Clients
How standard coaching can overload neurodivergent nervous systems
A free training for coaches who want better results with ADHD and autistic clients – without adding pressure, shame or nervous-system overload.
You are already coaching ADHD and autistic clients. This will help.
Free live online training with Mark Walsh & Dr. Helen Machen-Pearce
Questions or signup box not loading? Email support@embodimentunlimited.com or register here
Live June 2 & 4
Free live training
Replays available
Some clients need different coaching
Some clients can’t seem to do their “homework”. Some are a nightmare to get payment from! Some just vanish and you never know what freaked them out…
Some can analyse themselves brilliantly and still change little. Some just can’t focus on one goal…
Some freeze when you ask a powerful question. Some feel pressure when you don’t mean to add it.
Some look fine because they have spent years learning to look fine… and they’re not.
That may not be resistance. It may be that traditional coaching doesn’t fit the nervous system in front of you.
But there are a lot of small changes that can make a big difference…
More adults are identifying as ADHD, autistic or “AuDHD”. Many more have related patterns but aren’t formally diagnosed.
If you coach people at all, you’ve probably already come across this. So why not get better at adapting, rather than blaming the client?
This free training is about what to shift for greater (and kinder) impact as a coach.
Not diagnosis. Not therapy. Better coaching.
This is not about fixing neurodivergent people.
Please no.
It is about adapting coaching so it works better for the humans you’re working with.
Standard coaching often assumes that insight leads to action, importance creates motivation, open questions create clarity, and accountability helps.
Sometimes true… but also sometimes not.
Sometimes it creates more load, shame, confusion or shutdown.
This training helps you tell the difference.
This is for you if...
- You coach adults and want to work better with ADHD, autistic or AuDHD clients.
- You have bright clients who overthink, mask, freeze, vanish, burn out or struggle to follow through.
- You have seen goals, accountability or “powerful questions” create shame or confusion instead of movement.
- You want practical adaptations, not a dry awareness lecture.
- You want to stay in scope: not diagnose, treat or fix people.
- You like embodiment or nervous-system work and want to apply it with more skill and less BS.
It’s not aimed at parents, diagnosis seekers, school/SEN/children’s workers, those wanting personal therapy or looking for clinical diagnostic training.
Kind, effective coaching is not softer coaching
It is more accurately adapted coaching.
Sometimes the client needs challenge, structure, fewer words, less shame, movement or a change of state.
They may also need the coach to stop asking elegant questions and notice that the nervous system is cooked.
This training is about telling those apart.
Schedule & what you’ll learn
There are two core trainings:
- Coaching ADHD Clients: State Before Strategy with Mark
- Coaching Autistic Clients: Load, Masking, Safety with Helen
Each is offered twice (at different timeslots) so more people can attend live.
You do not need to attend all four slots unless you’re very keen or very bored.
Free replays will be available on June 3 and again June 5-7.
Jun 2 at 5pm UK & Jun 4 at 9am UK
Coaching ADHD Clients: State Before Strategy
with (squirrel club member) Mark
ADHD coaching is not just better plans, tighter accountability or more willpower. OMG no.
If the client’s state cannot carry the strategy, the strategy is mostly decorative.
I’ll look at ADHD through state, attention, interest, shame, pressure and follow-through – and what that means in the actual coaching.
You will leave with a simple State – Interest – Step check you can use with clients.
We’ll look at:
- Five ways to “squirrel proof” your coaching (make ADHD-friendly)
- Interest-based attention (why you borin’ normie)
- Executive-function load (science innit!)
- Shame and pressure loops (how not to accidentally be mean to us)
- Follow-through for unmanageable people (like me)
- State regulation for people whose brain is a box of frogs (like me)
- Session structure for organisational terrorists (like me)
- ADHD superpowers!!!
Jun 2 at 10am UK & Jun 4 at 4pm UK
Coaching Autistic Clients: Load, Masking, Safety
with Helen
Autistic clients do not need vaguer, deeper or more emotionally intense coaching.
Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is make the session easier to process.
Helen will look at autism through sensory load, cognitive load, masking, shutdown, predictability, communication and burnout – and what that means for coaching safely and well.
You will leave with a simple Load – Mask – Clarity check you can use with clients.
We’ll look at:
- Three clear ways to reduce sensory load
- Three clear ways to reduce cognitive load
- Three clear ways to increase predictability and clarity
- Three clear ways to manage masking
- Three clear ways to manage shutdown
- Three clear ways to work with communication differences
- Three clear ways to reduce burnout and increase recovery
- Three clear ways to understand identity, shame and late diagnosis
This training also works for German people. That was a joke. Kind of.
What you'll leave with
- A clearer map of how ADHD and autism can change how coaching lands
- A simple State – Interest – Step check for ADHD-related follow-through
- A simple Load – Mask – Clarity check for autistic clients
- Better ways to spot overload, masking, shame, shutdown and executive-function strain
- Practical changes you can try in your next session
This free training will not make you a certified anything, but you will be less likely to use the wrong tool with the wrong nervous system.
Coaching ADHD and Autistic Clients: dates and access
Live trainings: June 2 and June 4
Format: two core trainings, each offered twice
Replay catch-up: June 3
Replay weekend: June 5-7
Replay pack: $19 lifetime access available
Why come live?
You can watch the replay.
Live is better if you want the examples, chat, questions, and the full chaos-organisation of the Mark-Helen dynamic.
About the teachers
Mark Walsh
Mark Walsh is the founder of Embodiment Unlimited, host of The Embodiment Coaching Podcast, and a long-time trainer of coaches and facilitators in practical embodiment, centring and state work.
He is good at translating “the nervous system matters” into things coaches can actually do, usually with jokes and mild chaos.
For this training, Mark will focus mainly on ADHD, state, attention, follow-through and the embodied side of coaching different nervous systems.
Dr. Helen Machen-Pearce
Helen Machen-Pearce is a former NHS consultant psychiatrist with 25 years’ medical experience.
She now works at the intersection of nervous-system education, embodiment, resilience, overwhelm, burnout, persistent health issues and practical support.
For this training, Helen will focus mainly on autism, sensory and cognitive load, masking, clarity, safety and scope.
Join the free Coaching ADHD and Autistic Clients training
Coaching ADHD and Autistic Clients
A free training for coaches who want better results with ADHD and autistic clients – without adding pressure, shame or nervous-system overload:
- Live June 2 & 4
- Free replays available
- With Mark Walsh and Dr. Helen Machen-Pearce
Questions or signup box not loading? Email support@embodimentunlimited.com or register here
FAQ
Yes. The live training is free.
Yes.
Free replays will be available after each live training.
You can catch up on the June 2 trainings on June 3, and both trainings will be available again over the June 5-7 replay weekend.
A $19 replay pack will also be available for lifetime access.
Coaches and helping professionals working with adult clients, especially those who want to work more effectively with ADHD, autistic and AuDHD clients.
It may also be useful for facilitators, mentors, embodiment practitioners, therapists who coach, and similar helping professionals.
Yes.
The free training stands on its own, and there is also a 12-week Coaching Neurodivergent Clients course starting June 18 for those who want the fuller method.
It goes deeper into ADHD, autism, AuDHD, embodied regulation, session design, ethics, demos and real coaching application.
We’ll say a little more about it during the free training.
No.
This is professional coaching training.
It is not diagnosis, treatment, therapy or clinical training.
It is primarily professional training for people who coach or support adult clients.
Neurodivergent coaches are very welcome, but this is not a personal support group, diagnosis pathway or therapy space.
The free event focuses mainly on ADHD and autism.
The full course also explores AuDHD and the complexity that can come when ADHD and autistic patterns interact.
No.
The free event is an introductory training.
The full course may include a certificate of completion, but it is not diagnostic, clinical or medical training.
Probably not.
The free training gives a starting map.
The full course goes deeper into practice, session design, AuDHD, scope, embodied regulation, demos and case application.