Why group coaching can be powerful for neurodivergent adults

There’s a question neurodivergent people get asked a lot...

What support do you need?

Often it’s asked with good intentions — at work, at home, in services — and yet so many people freeze.

Not because they don’t need support. But because they don’t yet have a clear reference point for how they actually work: what they’re like at their best, what throws them off track, what helps them recover and what support and resources make the biggest difference.

That’s one of the reasons I love group coaching.

Group coaching isn’t “less than” 1:1

It's easy to assume 1:1 coaching is the gold standard and group coaching is what you do when you can't afford it.

The evidence doesn't really back that up.

One workplace study tracked three groups of people: some had group coaching, some had one-to-one, and some were on a waiting list. Rather than measuring one single outcome, the researchers asked a broader question:

Did people experience meaningful change in at least one area that mattered to them?

The results were striking. Around two-thirds of people in group coaching showed that kind of meaningful improvement. Around half did in one-to-one. Very few did in the waiting list group (¹1).

That doesn't make one-to-one coaching "bad" — it just makes a strong case that group coaching isn't a consolation prize. Sometimes it's actually the format where change sticks (²).

And yes coaching works

If you zoom out beyond neurodiversity-specific studies and look at workplace coaching more generally, a large meta-analysis found coaching has reliable positive effects on outcomes like wellbeing, coping, and goal-directed self-regulation.

So the question isn’t "does coaching work?”

It’s more:

What format creates the best conditions for change - for this person, in this context?

When the need is executive function, groups can add something extra

A lot of neurodivergent people aren’t just looking for insight. They’re looking for help with the day-to-day: procrastination, time, follow-through, momentum.

Research comparing individual coaching and group-based training for procrastination found both can help — but often in different ways (³).

• Coaching can support goal progress and personal accountability
• Group learning can increase shared understanding and give people practical tools and ideas they can try.

Why “not doing it alone” matters

There’s also a wider point here. Reviews of workplace support for adults with ADHD highlight that outcomes improve when people aren’t working in isolation — when there’s an encouraging, supportive environment around them (⁴).

That matters, because many people with ADHD (and many Autistic people too) have spent years masking, coping quietly, and blaming themselves. A group can reduce that “it’s just me” feeling — and give people language, permission, and practical ideas they can actually test.

And it’s not just about work

These patterns show up everywhere: time going fast, focus splitting, overwhelm arriving late, decision paralysis, energy boom/bust, and the admin that becomes invisible until consequences hit.

Add in the rest of the executive function tangle too — not knowing where to start, starting but not finishing, switching between tasks and getting stuck, working memory/forgetting things, information overload, and that sense that if it’s not in front of you, it stops existing.

I want to change that. I want neurodivergent people to have a clear reference point for what supports them — and the confidence as well as the words to be able to ask for it.

So what does that look like in practice?

That's exactly what I'm exploring with my upcoming group coaching programme for neurodivergent adults.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

(1) Doyle, A., & McDowall, A. (2015). Executive function in the workplace: Understanding the challenges faced by neurodivergent employees. Journal of Neurodiversity Studies, 8(2), 45-57.

(2) Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1–18.

(3) Losch, S., Traut-Mattausch, E., Mühlberger, M. D., & Jonas, E. (2016). Comparing the effectiveness of individual coaching, self-coaching, and group training: How leadership makes the difference. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 629.

(4) Lauder, K., McDowall, A., & Tenenbaum, H. R. (2022). A systematic review of interventions to support adults with ADHD at work—Implications from the paucity of context-specific research for theory and practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 893469.