For High Performing Adults With ADHD

You Know What to Do. Why Is It So Hard To Do It?

Private ADHD coaching to help you break the cycle of overwhelm, procrastination, and self-doubt using systems tailored for your brain.

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I work with a small number of private clients at a time to ensure depth and focus.

Paula smiling at camera

Does This Sound Familiar?

You know how to work hard. You’re someone who has achieved truly impressive things, probably while carrying twice the invisible load of everyone around you.

And yet, there’s this gap…

  • Between what you know you can do and what you’re actually producing each day.
  • Between the plan you make on Sunday night and the reality of Wednesday afternoon.
  • Between the confident version of you who shows up under pressure and the one who struggles to start the thing that’s been on the list for weeks.

Perhaps You recognize some of these patterns

Everything feels urgent, so nothing gets prioritized. You spend your day reacting instead of choosing.

You procrastinate because the pressure of caring so much makes it hard to begin.

You say yes to things you don’t have the capacity for because disappointing others feels worse than burning out.

You finish the day exhausted but unable to name what you actually did…and the shame spiral starts.

You function brilliantly under deadline pressure, but you know that’s not sustainable, nor is it how you want to live.

You’ve tried every planner, app, and productivity method out there. They work for a week or two, until they don’t.

If you’re nodding along, you’re not alone.

And there’s a reason none of those “solutions” have stuck.

Here’s What No One Told You

Most productivity advice wasn’t built for an ADHD brain.

It was designed for brains that maintain consistent energy, stay reliably motivated, and can easily separate their emotions from their to-do lists.

You don’t have a discipline problem.

You need a system upgrade.

When we try to force a neurotypical framework onto an ADHD brain, we end up fighting the system and ourselves.

Every abandoned planner, missed deadline, and “why can’t I just do the thing?” reinforces a false story so many of us ADHD brains hold: “Something must be wrong with me.” 

But it’s not.

What’s really happening is that we need a flexible system that actually supports an ADHD brain.

Please hear me: You are not the problem.

The “problem” is the system you were handed. 

“She gave me the language to articulate lifelong struggles. Challenges that often went unnoticed because, from the outside looking in, I was succeeding.”

— Anna Z.

“Her matter-of-fact yet gentle approach was exactly what I needed to get out of my head and back to work. Within our first couple of sessions, I saw enormous changes in my productivity and motivation.” 

— Sarah K.

Introducing Private ADHD Coaching

A Six-Month Partnership Built for Your Brain

Over six months of private coaching, we’ll build a personalized ADHD toolkit that supports your brain sustainably in both your personal and professional life.

01

CLARITY

Lay a solid foundation by practicing the pause, moving off autopilot, and building the self-trust needed for intentional living.

02

PLAN

Create flexible, ADHD-friendly systems to manage your time, energy, and tasks in a way that actually fits your brain.

03

ACT

Take action on your plans by removing friction, reducing procrastination, and learning to create doable next steps you’ll actually take.

04

COMPLETE

Finish what matters by strengthening your commitment, quieting perfectionism, and following through on what’s truly important.

This four-step framework extends far beyond six months.

It helps you design a system you’ll use for the rest of your life.

“I cannot believe how much my life and capacity for emotional balance have improved since Paula became my coach six months ago. I cannot recommend her highly enough!” 

— Terri C.

“I feel more engaged in my work as a high-risk obstetrician, more productive and imaginative as a researcher, and more engaged and happy as a wife and mom of a toddler.” 

— Becky M.

“I now have an established daily and weekly routine, designed for my own brain, my life circumstances, and my goals. This has not only made me more productive, but also stabilized me significantly.” 

— K.M.

What Your Six Months Look Like

  • Weekly Private Sessions

    Dedicated time each week, tailored to exactly where you are, whether that’s a specific obstacle at work, strengthening your self confidence, or building out a new system to follow your routines. Each session is tailored to where you are right now.

  • Personalized ADHD Toolkit

    From sustainable planning and prioritization without burning out, to emotional regulation support, to navigating perfectionism and procrastination, we build a flexible set of strategies customized to your brain, your goals, and your life, together.

  • Ongoing Strategic Support

    Throughout the week, you have a thought partner in your corner via email. Whether you’re navigating a difficult decision, need to talk through a strategy, or want accountability for a specific commitment, support is woven into the experience, not limited to a single hour per week.

  • ADHD-Informed Approach

    Every strategy, tool, and conversation is rooted in how ADHD brains actually function. We don’t work around your ADHD, we work with it. This means honoring your need for novelty, building in flexibility, and creating systems that account for shifting energy, emotion, and focus.

  • Learn On Your Schedule

    Each week you'll receive short videos teaching the skills and strategies to thrive with your ADHD brain. Every lesson is also available as a private podcast feed so you can listen on the go. Whether you learn best by watching and taking notes or listening while walking the dog, the content and resources meet you where you are.

Six Months From Now

Imagine opening your laptop on a Monday morning, feeling refreshed from the weekend, and knowing exactly where to start because you trust your system.

Imagine a colleague asking you to do “one more thing” and responding with a clear, calm “Thanks for thinking of me, but I don’t have capacity for that right now.” Without the shame spiral and thinking that you “should.”

Imagine finishing a workday and, instead of beating yourself up for everything you didn’t do, actually feeling satisfied with what you accomplished.

What clients regularly experience after working together:

  • Complete Meaningful Work

    They’ve built reliable planning systems without overwhelm.

  • Prioritize With Clarity & Confidence

    They’ve learned to distinguish what's urgent from important.

  • Set Boundaries Without Guilt

    They truly understand that protecting their energy is not selfish.

  • Procrastination No Longer Derails Plans

    They have emotional regulation tools when boredom, dread, or resistance appear.

  • Stick With It, Even When It's Hard

    They’ve built a bank of evidence that they always figure things out.

  • Finish What They Start

    Perfectionism and imposter syndrome no longer hold them back.

  • The Biggest Shift: Self-Doubt Replaced By Self-Trust

    Not because someone said they 'should' believe in themselves, but because they genuinely feel certain and built the proof.

Your Investment

Pay In Full

$8,000

One-time investment 

Payment Plan

6 x $1,334

Monthly for six months

Includes weekly private coaching sessions, personalized ADHD toolkit, private podcast, video skill library, workbooks and resources, and email support between sessions.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

A note on this investment

You’ve likely invested in plenty of things that were supposed to help: planners, courses, apps, books… Private coaching is different. We’re not just handing you a system and hoping it sticks. 

This is six months of having someone in your corner you trust. Someone who knows your brain, knows your patterns, and is building something with you as you navigate this season of life.

Private coaching is designed for those who want a completely personalized experience with dedicated one-on-one attention throughout. While this kind of support has a real cost, for the right person, it pays for itself in ways that go well beyond productivity.

In Their Words

“The first time I met Paula, I began to feel something I hadn’t felt in a long time—hope. It wasn’t that things were getting better overnight; it was the feeling that I could approach my work in a new way, one that finally felt intuitive.

Throughout working with Paula, she has taught me a new way of talking to myself. I now notice that even when I fall back into familiar, unhealthy patterns, I am much kinder to myself, which makes it easier to get back on track.

I feel a greater confidence making decisions, planning and taking on tasks I used to dread. Every week, I felt deeply understood and less alone.”

— Erin W.

“It was so helpful to work with Paula to customize and troubleshoot everything from my thoughts and emotions to concrete approaches to my tasks and calendar.

In six months, I went from having a bit of a toolkit I didn’t really trust to feeling confident that I can stick with this, work with my strengths, manage my challenges, and live life on my own terms.

This coaching helped me move from knowing some stuff about ADHD to someone who organizes her time, manages competing priorities, and pursues her goals with intentionality and acceptance.”

— Elizabeth D.

“Coaching with Paula has been the best investment I’ve made in my ADHD journey! As Paula helped me make sense of my ADHD symptoms, I remember the realization that, for the first time in my life, I truly felt understood. Paula’s coaching strikes the perfect balance between encouragement and challenge, as well as listening and educating. She gives autonomy while also offering structure within sessions when desired. She’s not only a gifted coach but a cheerleader, mentor and steady presence who will be in your corner through whatever life with ADHD throws at you!”

— Anna Z.

“I leave every single session with concrete tactics to apply in my life, and awareness and self-compassion that I know I could not have achieved on my own. My biggest victory from working with Paula is that I’m now less hard on myself, even on days when that’s not the case. There is so much to appreciate about Paula: her obvious talent as a coach; her breadth of knowledge; her thoughtful and compassionate approach; and her kind and fun personality. You will not regret working with her!”

— Catherine B.

Is Private Coaching Right For You?

This is for you if...

  • You’re a capable, high-performer who’s accomplished real things…but you know you’re working harder than you need to. 

  • You are ready to stop fighting your ADHD brain and start working with it. 

  • You’re willing to invest your time and energy into building something sustainable.
     
  • You’re tired of surface-level tips and want deep, personalized support that addresses how you think, feel, and function. 

  • You’re growth-oriented and self-aware. You’re ready to do the work, even when it’s uncomfortable. 

  • You value self-compassion and strengths-based approaches, and you want a coach who gets ADHD from the inside out.

This is Not The Right Fit If..

  • You like learning in groups and prefer a larger community of 10-15 people.
  • You’re looking for a one-size-fits-all system and someone to tell you exactly what to do; this is a collaborative process for designing your personalized toolkit.

  • You’re looking for quick tips and tricks. Sustainable change requires depth and time.

  • You’re not interested in exploring the emotional and belief layers underlying your patterns that often derail productivity.

  • You’d be better supported with clinical therapy or psychiatric support this season.
    Coaching is a powerful complement to clinical care, but it’s not a substitute.

Not sure which category you fall into? No problem! That’s what the consultation call is for. There’s no pressure or pushy sales. The call is for us to connect and explore whether coaching is the right next step for you.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

“I sought out one-on-one coaching after feeling I’d learned as much as I could about ADHD from podcasts and group coaching. I needed to get very specific about my particular circumstances and challenges. I now have an established daily and weekly routine, designed for my own brain, my particular circumstances, and my goals. This has not only made me more productive, but it has also stabilized me significantly. My feelings of anxiety and despair are much quieter, and when they do come, I have the tools to deal with them. I feel hopeful and empowered.”

— Kim M.

“Paula helped me with daily productivity strategies, but more importantly, she helped me understand myself and how my brain works. Together, we worked through years of self-critical thought patterns that were holding me back and causing pain. She helped me let these go and make space for my differences in thinking and big emotions. I have learned to creatively work WITH my brain instead of fighting it. Through this coaching experience, I regained my belief in my abilities and feel like I am truly and confidently myself again.”

— Bridgette L.

What Happens If You Wait?

Paula with purple hair wearing a blue sweater and black pants.

You already know the answer to this question; you’ve likely been living it for a while.

  • The scrambling continues.
  • The shame spirals persist.
  • The cycle of overcommitting, neglecting your own needs, and telling yourself you’ll “figure it out next month” continues.

And over time, something quieter starts to build…

  • Maybe imposter syndrome makes you hesitate, and you don’t go after the next leadership opportunity.
  • Maybe perfectionism keeps your creative idea hidden in your notes app instead of sharing it with the team.
  • Maybe you start questioning whether you’re truly as capable as you once thought.

None of that makes you a failure. It just means you have an ADHD brain that’s still looking for the right support.

Real Talk: What I’ve seen again and again is that waiting for the “right time” is one of the most common ways we avoid the discomfort of change. 

The right time doesn’t arrive. You create the right time by deciding: this matters enough to begin.

You deserve support designed to work with your brain.​

You Might Be Wondering...

I've tried coaching before and it didn't work. Why is this different?

That experience is worth paying attention to, and it’s more common than you might think. Coaching is a broad field, and most of it wasn’t designed with ADHD brains in mind.

ADHD-informed coaching with Paula is something specific: every conversation, strategy, and approach is built around how your brain actually processes information, manages emotions, and engages with the world. We go deeper by shaping the systems and strategies to work for you, not the other way around.

What if I can't do weekly sessions?

The weekly rhythm is what builds momentum and lets us work through patterns in real time. That said, life happens, and we can find a schedule that fits your reality. Consistent doesn’t have to be rigid.

What's the difference between coaching and therapy?

In coaching, we focus on building skills, strategies, and systems for the life you’re living right now. We do not focus on processing trauma or treating clinical conditions.

That said, coaching and therapy work beautifully together, and many of my clients are in both. If it ever seems that clinical support would serve you better, I’ll share this directly. My #1 goal is always helping you get the best support for your current season of life. 💜

I don't have an official diagnosis. Will this still help?

If you see yourself described in the patterns on this page or in episodes of the I’m Busy Being Awesome podcast, coaching can help.

I support clients in all stages of the ADHD journey, whether they:

  • Are recently diagnosed
  • Have known since childhood
  • Are in the middle of the evaluation process
  • Simply resonate with the executive function challenges shared on the podcast

In short, you don’t need a formal diagnosis to benefit from ADHD-informed coaching.

Can I do a shorter time commitment?

Sustainable change with ADHD takes time. The patterns that keep you stuck, like perfectionism, procrastination, over-committing, and people-pleasing, are deeply wired. Six months gives us space to build new systems, practice them in real life, adjust as needed, and accumulate real evidence of change that creates lasting self-trust.

I'm Paula Engebretson

ADHD coach and former professor.

I first realized I had ADHD while sitting around a big conference room table in 2016.

I was at a faculty training about supporting students with accommodations, and the presenter began describing ADHD in adults. Not the hyperactive stereotype, but the driven, high-achieving, overcompensating version.

As each bullet point went up on the slide — perfectionism, chronic overwhelm, emotional intensity, time blindness — it felt like they were narrating my life.

For the first time, I saw all of my struggles for what they were. Symptoms. Not a character flaw.

That moment changed everything. And it’s what brought me here.

Paula, ADHD coach, smiling with purple hair, wearing a denim jacket.

Since 2019, I’ve had the privilege of coaching over 200 high-performing adults with ADHD who are accomplished in their fields but exhausted from fighting their own brains.

I’m a certified coach through The Life Coach School with additional training in somatics, which means we work with your nervous system, your thought patterns, and the parts of you that have been carrying too much for too long. My approach is warm, practical, and deeply rooted in how ADHD brains actually function.

If you want to get a feel for my style before we talk, I’d love for you to listen to the I’m Busy Being Awesome podcast.

“Working with Paula was truly transformative—her compassionate and strategic approach helped me gain clarity, set boundaries, and create sustainable productivity habits. She is an exceptional listener who tailors her guidance to fit individual needs. Her insights and support made a lasting impact, and I highly recommend her coaching to anyone looking to work smarter and live with more balance.”

— Kate A.

“Paula is a highly trained life coach with a specialty in the area where productivity and ADHD intersect. She provides lots of resources in the form of workbooks and podcasts, but I found her personal presence, accompanying me as I struggled and learned and grew, the most powerful of her offerings. She is super conscientious and naturally kind, and of course, qualified and experienced.”

— Kim M.

Ready to Build a System That Actually Works for Your Brain?

You’ve spent enough time trying to force yourself into frameworks that weren’t designed for you. You’ve spent enough energy wondering what’s wrong with you.

The answer is nothing. Nothing is wrong with you.

Your brain works differently. It has a design specification. And once you start working with that design and build a life that honors it, everything changes.

If you’ve been nodding along while reading this, that’s worth noting.

The first step is a free consultation call — a genuine, no-pressure conversation where we explore whether this is the right fit for you.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

On this 45-minute call, we’ll talk about your current obstacles, your goals, and whether this coaching experience is the right next step.

No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation.

Want to get a feel for my approach first? Check out the I’m Busy Being Awesome Podcast.

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