Academic wellness coaching is for college students who want to make the most of their educational opportunities, but are stressed out because they’re under-performing - by their own definition.
I’ve been there. It doesn’t have to be so hard.
Sure, college is demanding - it’s meant to be, right? You’re there to grow yourself intellectually, develop critical skills and habits for adult life, form deeply connected relationships, and have an amazing time doing all of that.
But if you’re not doing as well as you want to at college - if you’re struggling to manage your time, get your work done, or feel organized - I can help. I’m an expert in holistic productivity and academic wellness for high-functioning, creative, neuro-divergent (and neuro-typical) college students, and I have a special affinity for those of us with attentional-spectrum issues like ADHD.
Very often, if you’re functioning well, but you still aren’t doing as well as you want to at college, it has to do with some combination of these things:
executive function (task and time management, organization, procrastination or avoidance, getting started on things, planning out larger projects/papers, and other things that affect the effectiveness of your academic work habits),
nervous system dysregulation,
unmet sensory needs,
difficult or traumatic experiences (sometimes including the experience of schooling during COVID!)
… all combined with the natural, predictable stressors and significant developmental demands of college life.
Here’s the happy news: there are learnable, teachable, and practice-able skills that will really help - and they get easier and easier the more you do them.
Things get better even faster when you develop a productivity toolkit that’s super-personalized and deeply satisfying.
Successes can accumulate fast, which feeds your motivation, which makes it easier to keep doing what’s working. And the best part of all? Once you make it habitual, this becomes your default. And your academic life gets dramatically better - and stays that way.
In academic wellness coaching, I can help you to deeply understand your own brilliant, idiosyncratic executive function, identify and implement high-leverage, high-pleasure upgrades to your current productivity habits and mindsets, and learn to thrive at college. By your own definition.
Executive function: usually not the whole story
It’s usually not all about executive function, but for most of us, this is a very useful place to begin.
And for some of us, learning about this framework - and related skills work - is enough to get the wheels moving in the right direction.
I don’t offer pure, single-focused executive function skills coaching because I believe that addressing academic wellness holistically is a more effective and affirming approach.
Together, we’ll identify your desires for yourself, check out where things aren’t going the way you want, and get to work.
Yes - you really can learn to live a life filled with intellectual satisfaction, amazing social connections, and yes, even enough sleep. College doesn’t have to be a grind.
This is Academic Wellness Coaching, not just executive function coaching - because together we’ll look at the whole picture of your college academic life, and take a very holistic approach to getting exactly what you want out of college.
Learn to appreciate your natural strengths, maximize that advantage - and address what’s creating the difficulties that are impacting your daily life and your progress toward your goals.
I work with high-functioning people who are doing well overall, but are stressed by their academic or professional lives.
So if that’s you, and you’re exhausted but curious about how it could be better, and you want to take action to make life easier, more joyful, and more productive, I’m here to help.
Whatever has been in the way until now - from ADHD to trauma, from being neuro-divergent in an academic world that’s built for so-called neurotypicals to stress and overwhelming workloads to just feeling “scattered” or “not meeting your potential” - I can help.
Together, we’ll develop easy, workable, satisfying, and highly personal systems to get the things done that matter most to you.
Oh, and you’ll also get into deep connection with the wisdom of your body, the natural world, and your wild imagination. You’ll learn to develop amazing habits, an unbreakable self-regard and a healthy and compassionate mindset. You can get SO much more of the high-leverage stuff done - and you’ll enjoy your life way, way more.
It’s such a relief to know that you’re not actually “an underachiever”, or any of the demeaning, inaccurate words that we call ourselves when we don’t meet our own standards. And it can be harder to navigate in a dominant culture that’s obsessed with a certain narrow definition of productivity.
You just haven’t hit your executive function groove. Yet.
But you can.
Maybe you want to get better grades, complete projects on time and without stress, learn not to procrastinate, develop more effective study habits, or understand your needs as a learner.
Or maybe you just want to figure out how to pass calculus and still have time to go out on Saturday night.
Whatever else we work on, when we complete our work together, you can also expect to have developed:
A robust, flexible and reliable toolkit for keeping yourself on track at college - as defined by you.
A thorough understanding of your own executive function and how it impacts you - at home, at work, and in your relationships. We ground the work in your particular EF strengths, and use them to fortify the areas that don’t come as easily to you.
A personal, individualized, well-tested set of productivity practices that work for you.
Better habits, from nourishing yourself to directing your attention to curating your schedule and co-creating healthy relationships.
Your own self-drawn map of the academic year, semester by semester, which we’ll adjust together as we orient to the shifting demands of your classes, commitments and desires.
A well-defined and unapologetic set of priorities for your precious time and energy - and functional tools for sticking with them.
Real clarity about what supports and boosts your productivity, and what drains and undercuts you.
A better understanding of how to meet the needs of your particular nervous system, sensory processing system, emotional regulation system, and executive function so that you can thrive at college in the ways that you want to.
A trauma-informed, compassionate and generous way of seeing yourself that will help you to weather any storm.
Each semester, we’ll enjoy:
Weekly 1:1 coaching sessions by phone, focused on whatever best supports you to handle your upcoming assignments and workload.
Every week, we’ll use Zoom for part of our session so that you can go into your learning management system (Canvas, BrightSpace, Moodle, etc) and share your screen. This supports you to stay on top of the assignments that are due - now and later.
An optional but useful shared Google doc, where we summarize our sessions, document your insights, and you choose the action steps you want for yourself this week. Some students use this as a weekly work-planning document. Our notes can be a useful reference for you as you move through the week, the month, and the year. It’s also a nice way to see your own growth over time.
Learning about your specific executive function profile, to help us identify what skills come easy to you and and what’s harder - so you can build useful micro-skills and habits. This can also help to de-shame some of the struggles you may be facing, and provide a neutral explanation for why certain things are puzzlingly difficult.
Optional but recommended: CliftonStrengths for Students, a powerful strengths-based assessment that helps you learn about your natural areas of excellence and enthusiasm, and how to apply them at college.
Visioning and goal-setting (or, if you prefer, daydreaming into possibility). We’ll check in regularly with your “big agenda for coaching” - focusing our attention on what’s most important to you, and how our current work supports those crucial goals.
Self-paced learning materials, as appropriate, to help you contextualize our work. These are totally optional, but they can be an important asset. They’re a distillation of the unusual things I know about how to thrive at college by addressing the needs of your EF profile, your nervous system, your physical body and your sensory system - and taking a pleasure-centered approach to your academic success. Sometimes students find this component radically helpful, and a source of inspiration and relief.
Optional weekly Co-Work and Ask Me Anything Office Hours. Drop into our Zoom room and ask about a productivity dilemma, get some quick support, or quietly get some work done while others do the same.
Is this list freaking you out because it seems like it might add to your to-do’s?
Don’t worry - it doesn’t.
Everything we do is designed to relieve your stress, because it helps you get things done more easily and take more pleasure in your academic life. Yes, developing new mindsets and habits takes some energy, some fresh insight, and some willingness. And it won’t be entirely effortless - after all, if it were easy-peasy, you might not need a coach! The things that are hard for us are genuinely hard for us.
But as you learn new perspectives, build new skills, and learn to take excellent care of yourself, you’ll become more able handle what you need to handle with ease, clarity and satisfaction. Coaching isn’t an extra obligation - it’s a place where you restore yourself, feel seen and heard, and upgrade the way you do what you do.
How do I know?
Because my clients tell me so - both in my private practice and in my work as an Academic Coach at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Please feel free to check out my Champlain profile here.
Choose Your Own Adventure!
A full academic year
August 15th through May 15th
I recommend coaching together for the full year whenever possible, because that’s the most reliable way to create lasting habits and deeply satisfying results.
In this best-case, year-long scenario, you’ll have my unwavering weekly support of a dedicated coach through the predictable rhythms of the collegiate academic year and the specific developmental challenges you will face.
This calendar includes the entire academic year, plus brief but important “shoulder seasons” of reflection and preparation just before each semester opens and just after they close.
During winter break, we deepen your learning with a purposeful process organized into three sections: Digest/Reflect, Rest and Consolidate, and Envision/Prepare.
The investment for a full academic year of steady weekly support (mid-August through mid-May, with two meetings over winter break) is $1,099/month.
If appropriate, please see below for sliding scale options.
A semester together
First or second semester only
I recommend coaching together for the full year whenever possible, because that’s the most reliable way to create lasting habits and deeply satisfying results.
But if that feels like too much, or you aren’t ready to commit to a full year, it’s completely possible to take it one semester at a time.
1-semester coaching includes a session during the December 15-January 15 midwinter break to consolidate your learning, reflect on first semester and/or prepare for the upcoming term.
The investment for a semester of steady weekly support is $1,099/month.
If appropriate, please see below for sliding scale options.
Begin any time
Begin when you’re ready
I recommend coaching together for the full year whenever possible, because that’s the most reliable way to create lasting habits and deeply satisfying results.
But sometimes you don’t know you need a coach until you’re in the thick of it - or maybe you’ve only recently heard about my work.
That’s totally OK! As long as there’s room in my practice, and we’re an ideal fit to work together, we can start any time.
Together, we’ll dive right in and quickly choose the highest priorities and most effective places to start.
The investment for steady weekly support is $1,099/month.
If appropriate, please see below for sliding scale options.
The standard financial investment for a full 6 months of my steady weekly support within a wildly generative, deeply nourishing coaching relationship is $1,099/month or $6,595 total for the entire 6 months.
If you’re already clear that your coaching project will require at least a full calendar year of steady coaching, and you’re ready to commit to that, I am delighted to offer a slightly lower 12-month rate in appreciation of your decisiveness.
In recognition that we live in an economic system with very real financial inequities, I am delighted to reserve several coaching spots, year-round, at sliding scale rates for motivated clients who cannot access coaching at standard rates.
When appropriate, sliding scale options are $975/month, $850/month and $675/month. There is sometimes a wait list for a sliding scale spot. Currently I have openings at $975 and $850.
Because I am a one-woman coaching practice, a single parent, and the financially responsible head of household, if you are able to access coaching at standard rates, I request (and am deeply grateful) that you do so.
We’ll only work together if we’re sure it’s an incredible fit.
How will we know?
Well, you’ve explored my website and registered your initial impression. You’ve thought about the investment of money, energy and time. What I offer feels right and helpful to you, and you’re feeling drawn to working together.
Fantastic! Here are some other things to check in with yourself about:
For parents/guardians/caregivers:
I’m thrilled that you’re considering hiring a coach for your beloved college student. As a “gifted + ADHDish” human, if I had known back then half of what I know now about executive function, nervous system regulation, sensory processing needs and trauma-informed coaching, my college experience would have been incredibly different - and my memories of it wouldn’t be tinged with so much academic regret.
My GPA could have been a full point higher, my self-regard might not have taken years to rebuild, and my intellectual curiosity could have been fed in ways that I just didn’t know how to do back then.
My lived experience + my rigorous and diverse professional training is a very rare combination, and I offer this unusual and powerful coaching because I know the crucial difference it can make. I know what it’s like to live for many years as a gifted underachiever - cognitively precocious, but a train wreck when it came to organizational skills, time management, project planning and execution.
An academic wellness coach is a major investment in your student’s intellectual, emotional and physical well-being. The right coach and client, working together at the right time on the right skills, can be life-changing. Let’s find out if we’re a combination with that kind of potential.
For students:
I’m so happy that we may get to work together! A coach like me is exactly who I needed back when I was in college, but back then, this kind of coaching didn’t exist.
If you’re feeling certain that this is what you need, or intrigued and hopeful that this sounds like it might help, I am delighted to be able to support you!
On the other hand, if the kinds of things I’m talking about here seem irrelevant to your life, or you just aren’t that interested, I’m probably not the coach for you, and it might not be a good use of our time. And that is ok!
I coach people who feel excited, relieved, curious, and/or hopeful when they hear about what I offer, and are interested enough in their own growth that they’re willing to try some new approaches.
Communication with parents/caregivers about the coaching is primarily the responsibility of the student. Conversations between the coach and the parents/caregivers happens at the student’s discretion, typically with the student present and leading the conversation. This is partly because coaching is maximally effective when it is confidential.
It is also because together, we are supporting the developmental goal of the student becoming fully responsible for their entire academic life, including communications with family about their goals, struggles, and achievements.
Still with me? Excellent! Let’s schedule a clarity call!
On our call, we’ll:
Make sure we’re talking about the same thing. We’ll get clear about what you want to learn, practice, or develop - and we’ll be sure it’s in my wheelhouse.
Check for philosophical and energetic alignment.
Ask ourselves: are we both enjoying our conversation?
Use gut feeling, intuition, instinct, vibe, and the body compass check. (Don’t know what this is? No problem. I can teach you.)
