Your Attention Coach » Maureen Nolan

International ADD-ADHD Coach Maureen Nolan, ACC

Maureen — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:25:27 +0000

International Focus on ADHD Coaching as Personal Commitment

Maureen Nolan, ACC is an Atlanta ADHD Coach

credentialed in ADHD coaching by the ADHD Coaching Academy,
certified ACC by the International Coaching Association,
the only ADHD Coach in the country certified by Dr. David Grand in Brainspotting and
studied Body/Mind Coaching, Positive Thinking and the Law of Attraction at LifeWorks in Atlanta.

She is a creative coach, small business owner and an active member of the ADHD Coaches Organization.

Maureen has taken extra ADHD Coach training by Jodi Sleeper-Triplett to become an EDGE Foundation Coach for academic success of students from ninth grade through a lifetime of academics.

Maureen believes in the healing aspect of coaching especially of ADHD coaching – not curing it but healing the impact of it on life’s decision making, through improved information processing, goal setting and personal achievement.

Experience and Passion for ADHD Coaching

Before forming the Your Attention Coach business, Maureen was a

former trade magazine editor and
Communications Specialist for a school for students K-8th grades with ADHD and LD, she also
edited Kids Enabled Magazine, an Atlanta-area resource that addresses the challenges of caring for and teaching children with learning differences and
has been published in ADDitude Magazine.
She led ADHD support groups and ADHD coaching groups for goal achievement.

Maureen’s two adult children live with the impact of ADHD and are the reason she was similarly diagnosed and eventually became an ADHD coach. Her son is a graduate of Landmark College, a premier two-year college for students with ADHD.

Positive Thinking and ADHD Coaching

Maureen’s increased focus in attention coaching is an outgrowth of the Positive Thinking movement. Her coaching instructs clients in ADHD education with a belief that education is power:

as L.B. said ‘I learned more in one hour with Maureen about ADHD than in six months with my psychiatrist’.

She also believes in

collaborative relationships with all the support professionals a client brings to the relationship, or is referred to through their work together and
instructs clients in community building for their life-long support. In addition to the conventional education and training,
is interested in Graphology (Handwriting Analysis) as an assessment for attention – as attention is a state of consciousness that is expressed in handwriting.

Maureen Nolan, ACC, Your Attention Coach has practiced ADHD Coaching with bilingual clients, clients as far away as Dubai and is passionate about international ADHD coaching. ADHD does not distinguish among nations!

Life with ADD is More Fun with Support!

Maureen — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:17:14 +0000

Success with ADD Comes More Easily with Support Systems

The first major transition in my life was our family move to Atlanta, Ga. from Cleveland, OH when I was ten years old. My mother said I cried half-way through the several day drive. I left behind my cousins and friends and everything I knew and felt comfortable around to arrive in the American South of 1963; it was a land of accents and heat and summer rain storms and incomparable natural beauty and racial discrimination. I believe I became a ‘problem’ for the first time, fighting and feeling left out. I did not transition well.

If you are moving your children to a new location;

create immediate comfort with group play and sports organizations;
create leadership opportunities;
enroll your child in classes where he/she already excels for continued self-esteem.

Peer Groups are Important to Thrive with ADHD

My second major transition was to a public high school from a parochial school in our neighborhood. My mother was already driving my older sister in a carpool to her private Catholic high school and did not want to drive another (this was 1967 when driving was a limited activity and 20 minutes in each direction was an official outing), so I walked to the nearby public school. I did not transition well, feeling isolated among yet another new group of peers. I isolated myself further and appeared ‘shy’.

If at all possible keep your child with his/her group of friends for high school
Isolation is unhealthy – create an ongoing opportunity for your child to be involved in leadership training
Just because your child is quiet and well-behaved does not mean he/she is happy – talk, talk, talk with your child about everything.

Start ADHD Coaching Before Leaving for College

The third major transition was to college in St. Louis where I had lots of family to visit and be comfortable around but it was a difficult transition as again all my ‘support systems’ of a few friends and the familiarity of my surroundings were gone along with any sense of being tethered. I was a wild child for a while and rue the day I was let loose without structure.

Get your student a coach! Learning to live away from home is a skill – it’s not natural to be on your own since we are community beings.
At the same time, your student needs to learn to self-motivate. A coach is a transition figure in your student’s life – the transition from your roof to being independent.
You need independence, too! Get yourself a coach to transition you through the empty nest years.

I’ve since transitioned into the work world, marriage and motherhood, each with its challenges and happiness. I’m transitioning after divorce now, and I have discovered the same is true for all my transitions: Setting Goals and creating support relationships make my life work. I am now working with other entrepreneurs in a supportive group setting at New Tricks where we share our business goals, challenges and successes.

Life is More Fun with Support!

What works for you during transition?

Attention to Discomfort

Maureen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:07:01 +0000

Itching to be Distracted

Itch to Calm Your Bug Bites

There’s a web of skin between my little finger and ring finger with a bug bite, a little red, raised itchy angry spot shouting for my attention. And there’s another one on my left ankle. And another on my middle right toes, not counting the river of bumps under my right forearm. Something is is under my right shoulder blade and suddenly my left front thigh is shouting out for an equal opportunity scratch.

By now, you’re itching, aren’t you. Don’t stop. Share the agony with me. This itch is something that I want to share with everyone. I’m bitten up from my toes to my neck, from shoulder to shoulder, from stomach to lower back. I feel like the little girl I once was who woke up one morning to discover bites all over my stomach and back because of a hole in the window screen.

This time however, I was way more active seeking out the bugs from the meadow to the lake to the waterfall and back again. I worked at acquiring each and every bite walking up the steep slope and down the dirt path. That night my friends and I laughed at stories about bed bugs while anesthetizing ourselves with fine wine. I had a ball but next time, I’m bringing bug spray.

What do you do about bug bites? Epsom salts? Crosses made with fingernails. Share your favorite remedy…and hurry!

This is a practical attention issue, there’s nothing esoteric about it. However, for the most recent research on scratching, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/07itch.html.