ADHD academic writing support
Frequently Asked Questions
Have questions about ADHD writing support for your university? Find answers to common questions about coaching programs, pricing, effectiveness, and logistics.
Logistics and process
How does Academic ADHD writing coaching for institutions work, logistically?
I am based in Italy, but through my computer screen, I support academics from around the world during those times where our hours overlap.
Coaching will take place through video calls, and I can be contacted through email and Google Chat.
I normally take payments through the Stripe platform, which allows for most of the common payment methods (credit card, PayPal, etc). If your institution requires it, I’m happy to handle invoicing in whatever way fits with your workflows.
How long does academic writing support for faculty and PhD candidates typically last?
If you hire me to run a workshop, the arrangement will typically end within 1-2 months.
The length of coaching relationships can vary. Some academics hire me only for a specific project, feeling that they got everything they needed out of a 6-month program; while others have been with me in one form or another for over 4 years!
It’s all dependent on your ADHD academic’s needs, and your budget concerns.
Can faculty use ADHD writing coaching alongside our existing faculty development programs?
Absolutely! I’m happy to work alongside all other types of support your ADHD academic receives – faculty development programs, therapy, or any other kind of support.
What do you require from our department/institution?
I try to keep all my processes as simple and easy to navigate as possible.
If you decide to hire me to support your ADHD academic staff and/or PhD candidates, all I need is the following:
- Tell me everything you would like to happen during the process
- Set up your preferred payment methods
- Put me in touch with the academics you’d like me to support.
I’ll take care of everything else.
Cost & Value
What does ADHD academic writing support cost?
I offer different services at different price points.
- Workshops start at €500 and are a one-time purchase.
- The Faculty Accelerator program costs €2500 per faculty member, per semester.
- The PhD Completion Intensive costs €3500 per PhD candidate, per semester.
Can ADHD academic writing support be funded through faculty development budgets / professional development funds / grant overhead?
Absolutely. Many people pay me through these types of funds. Furthermore, I’m happy to provide whatever you require to ensure compliance with the grant’s or budget’s regulations.
What's the ROI of ADHD academic writing coaching for our institution?
That’s a really good question, which is very hard to answer in any quantified way, without knowing the specific circumstances of both your institution and your faculty/PhD candidate.
What I can tell you is that my work will help you reduce burnout and increase retention of your most promising talent.
Your faculty’s publication output will go up, and time-to-degree for PhD candidates will go down.
In short, I’ll work with your talent to help them align with your institution’s goals, while improving their overall well-being.
Effectiveness & Fit
What makes ADHD-specific support different from general writing coaching or productivity training?
Much generic writing advise doesn’t just not work for ADHD academics, the fact it doesn’t work often makes ADHD writers feel ashamed for not being able to see the same successes with these strategies that their peers do – dimming their enthusiasm and making motivation increasingly hard. As such, ADHD-informed writing support can begin to help undoing the years of negative messaging these traditional types of training and support have embedded in the academic’s mind – which will already help improve productivity – while also introducing interventions, tools and strategies that will allow the academic to work with their brain to achieve the great successes they are capable of.
Do participants in ADHD writing solutions programs need an ADHD diagnosis?
No, I do not require a doctor’s note. If an academic feels their challenges align with those of an ADHDer, that’s good enough for me. What’s more, it is my conviction that an ADHD-friendly world is an everyone-friendly world. So even those who are simply curious are welcome to attend my workshops – though the more intense coaching programs will be less useful for them.
What if faculty are skeptical or resistant to the "ADHD" label?
That really depends on the circumstances.
There are very good reasons for faculty to be fearful of embracing the label or self-disclosing at work. After all, there’s still a lot of stigma around ADHD and they wouldn’t be the first to face repercussions for disclosing their diagnosis. These people, I’d be happy to help. If you decide to hire me to run a workshop, they can participate anonymously (without disclosing to their employer), or they can go to PassionateWriterCoaching.com to hire me as a coach themselves.
If their skepticism or resistance aligns more with recent media messages about overdiagnosis and/or long-promoted stereotypes about the typical ADHDer – but you see a lot of similarities between their patterns of behaviour and challenges and those of ADHD faculty – there are two things we can do. Either you can tell them that whether or not they have ADHD, the workshops I teach might give them some ideas about how to start tackling their own challenges; or we will just have to accept that they are on their own journey which may or may not lead to acceptance (and potentially diagnosis) at some point in their lives.
What kind of results do you typically see?
Usually, the first results I see have to do with hope and motivation. Often, the ADHD academics who work with me have been struggling for a very long time, and have gotten to the point where they have lost faith in their abilities and might even actively consider leaving academia. As, during our sessions, they learn more about how their ADHD brain works, and how it has caused their challenges, they begin to rebuild faith in their ability to meet their publication goals, removing a big source of demotivation.
Then, they typically start critically engaging with their own process a lot more, taking their newfound information to everyday challenges. By removing these challenges, they rebuild their confidence more, whilst simultaneously developing and working towards concrete goals on the road to publication.
Privacy & related concerns
Are your ADHD writing solutions confidential? Will you report back to the department about individual faculty members?
The workshops are entirely confidential. To the university body that hired me I do not communicate the names of people who joined the workshop, only the number of people who attended and, if the approval checkbox is marked on an individual feedback form, the reviews I received from participants.
For coaching programs, the situation is a bit different. If an institution pays for my coaching services, I will share with them a report on the ADHD academic’s progress (the frequency of which can be discussed during the initial call). As they are investing, I feel it’s only natural that they are informed of the results of their investment. However, I will only share the report after the academic has signed off on it, making sure to never disclose any information the academic would like to keep confidential.
What if a faculty member is already behind on a major deadline or commitment? Can your ADHD writing solutions still work?
I often work with people in this exact situation: they’ve tried to work through their challenges by themselves for a long time, but now that a big deadline is looming, they realize they really need help.
Usually, these situations have a wonderful way of focusing the coaching journey, resulting in clear and fast outcomes – once we’ve worked through the shame and guilt, that is.
This work can be rewarding and fulfilling, but only if success is still an option. If we’re too close to the deadline, with too much work left undone, I will clearly communicate to both parties my belief that the goal needs to be reconsidered, rather than putting the onus of failure on the ADHD academic I’m coaching.
Scope & Boundaries
Do you only work with tenure-track faculty, or can adjuncts/postdocs/grad students participate?
I’m happy to work with ADHD academics at any stage of their career and have done so in the past. This is true not only for 1-on-1 coaching, but also for group coaching and workshops. In fact, I’ve found that when ADHD academics connect to others and share their experiences, these boundaries disappear relatively quickly. I’ve seen grad students advise department heads on how to deal with a particular productivity issue with great success.
If, however, for budget reasons, you need to put boundaries on the kinds of ADHD academics who will be able to participate in the program you’re paying for, I’m happy to oblige.
What types of academic writing do you support?
In the past five years, I’ve helped ADHD academics write dissertations, books and book chapters, grant proposals, journal articles, course materials, book proposals and even blog posts for their students. As I focus mostly on the process of producing texts, the particular form this text takes doesn’t matter much.
Do you provide discipline-specific advice, or is this focused more on the process of writing with ADHD?
As I help ADHD academics mostly with navigating their ADHD tendencies during the writing process, the interventions and tools usually work across disciplines.
From personal experience I’m most familiar with the disciplines in the Humanities, but have worked with many in the Social Sciences, Economics and Business, and some clients in the hard sciences as well.
Do you have any other questions I haven't yet answered?
Consult my calendar below and schedule your free, 30-minute strategy session.