Is this you or your teen?

• Are you or your teen able to powerfully hyperfocus on certain things beyond end, but are then forgetful, and inconsistent with homework, organization, & time management? 

• Are you or your teen quick thinkers, good multi-taskers, and able to shift gears quickly, but also impulsive, aggressive, argumentative, and/or hard to control at home or school at other times? 

• Help clients identify their patterns of behavior and belief systems that are holding them back in learning and in life.

• Help clients articulate a step-by-step plan that will allow them to move up the ladder of success utilizing their inherent strengths and learning styles to actualize their fullest potential.

• Teens and young adults who are intelligent & creative,  but deal with academic, performance, focus, and organizational issues in school.

• Adults who may already be successful, but want to be more effective at work and in relationships and learn tools that can help remove ADD barriers where and when they occur in life

Steve Cogan     

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is an ACG (ADD Coach Academy Graduate), and a life coach who specializes in coaching teens & adults with ADD and individuals facing adversity following the loss of a limb or physical disability. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from UC Irvine and Masters Degree in Public Health, Epidemiology from San Diego State University. Steve is an 11 year public high school teacher and adjunct faculty member for National University with expertise in science, health, teaching methods, and brain based learning. He is a full right leg amputee of 30 years and successfully takes on life challenges with and without a prosthesis. His motto is "if I can do it, you can do it." Steve is married and raising a teenage daughter, and when he is not teaching or coaching, he enjoys performing as a singer/songwriter guitarist, snow skiing, cycling, swimming, kayaking, travelling, wood working, and exploring nature. (Click for more info)

My ADD Story

I'm often asked, "what all of a sudden made you want to work with individuals with ADD?" Interestingly enough, my response has been that I have really been involved with ADD all my life; I always knew something was amiss, but I could never put my finger on it. I was hyper as a kid, but I really can't say that I recognized a pattern until high school. I could be talking to someone in conversation or be reading a textbook and I would suddenly find myself lost in thought on something else. I would not remember 30 seconds of what someone had just said to me or a paragraph I had just read. In the case of listening, I would get diverted to a negative thought or conversation I would cycle through in my head and then, because I had missed the conversation, I felt impelled to interrupt with my own comment after being stuck on my own agenda.

 Daydreaming & ADD

In the case of reading, I would then have to go back and re-read the passage, but sure enough I would again fall into a trance and when I snapped out of it, I discovered that again I hadn't comprehended the material. Even though I was a slow reader and this daydreaming cycle persisted, I did well in high school and actually earned straight A's throughout my 4 years. What I didn't realize was that I was studying all the time to accomplish this; I would start studying after dinner, but because my brain liked the stimulation of being near the TV and family arguments, I was easily distracted and would draw out to hours what should have taken a half hour to an hour to complete.

More ADD Symptoms 

The challenges of ADD manifested further in college. As I searched for my ideal learning style, I determined that I was a verbal processor and that saying notes out loud helped me to remember material. I also always had to have something in my hand when I studied or my nervous energy would cause me to pull the threads out of my shirts or socks. I had a habit in college of staying up way late into the night to study when everyone else was asleep.

 The ADD Brain & Sleep

I now know that, in addition to diminished neural activity in the prefrontal cortex, ADD is associated with a build up of cortisol, one of your stress hormones, and if levels don't diminish at night as they should to make you tired, it has the effect as it did for me of keeping your motor going into the night. The consequence of that was that I was sluggish in the morning; my brain cortisol levels were now lower by that time, but I hadn't really slept, and if I was then put in a high pressure situation like a test, to perform at that time, I could never think as clearly as I wanted.

 Accommodations/Success

My initial plan as a biology major at UC Irvine was to apply to medical school, but this ADD cycle ultimately caused me to perform poorly when I took the MCAT, the Medical College Admissions Test, on two occasions, which lead me to revise my life plan. I didn't realize until I was evaluated for ADD in 1997 that I had unique brain wiring that warranted testing accommodations which I finally utilized when I took my subject matter competency tests for teaching. I ultimately realized what many ADD books say, that success dealing with ADD amounted to finally choosing the right profession, teaching, and the right partner in life in 2000.

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 How to make the best of your ADD?

My life lessons have shown me that there is such a need for the guidance of an ADD coach, an awareness that didn't exist when I was going through this stuff.

 Benefits of ADD Coaching

Knowing this, I explored going back to school for yet another masters, but discovered that traditional educational or clinical psychology graduate programs do not cover ADD in any serious way. When I discovered the ADD Coaching Academy, where I received year long training as a coach, I gained a thorough understanding of the barriers that get in the way with ADD and how to mediate them. I learned that maintaining healthy boundaries in my life and focusing more on my strengths relieved me from dwelling on negative thoughts during conversation and reading, and how to refine my sleep patterns when the tendency for imbalance is still there. I saw how other coaches in training were able to shift negative beliefs they held about their intelligence, professional abilities, talents, money management, and asking for what they really want from life. Gaining a better handle on our own ADD through the process of our training, has made my colleagues and I better coaches, better people, and happier.

 Better Learning With ADD

Over 11 years of high school teaching, I have now seen so many teens struggle with focus and organization issues. 504 education plans typically provide simple learning accommodations to help kids get through school, but don't offer teachers any practical intervention tools to actually change the attitude, behavior patterns, and negative beliefs teens have about learning. While individualizing instruction with 35+ kids to a science class and no time is difficult, if not impossible with the way things are in schools right now, I have been able to demonstrate that coaching strategies can work with much success. With one student, John, it was having him, after checking in, run around the lunch quad for 2 minutes to boost blood flow and serotonin levels in the brain through exercise to help him calm down and focus. With another student, who was more visual and interested in computers, it was having him do a powerpoint presentation as an alternative to homework he wouldn't complete anyway. In this case it was utilizing his best learning style and something he was already interested in, but in general you are always trying to consider learning needs with the brain in mind.

 Adult ADD &

Adversity Coaching

Now, even if you are at a point in life where you are done with your education and its challenges, your ADD still interferes with your relationships and work success. This is where I think coaches can bridge the gap working with teens and adults. Additionally, I have always wanted to share my dual experience successfully overcoming obstacles as an amputee with others dealing with adjustment to loss of limb or other physical dissabilities and hope to help others as well as an Adversity Coach.

All the best,

               Steve Cogan