How Can AI Support Your ADHD Brain? Here’s How I Use AI in Neurodiversity Coaching

AI is everywhere right now and if you’re neurodivergent, it can certainly help ease the load of overwhelm and mental clutter.

As an ADHD and neurodiversity coach, I’ve found that AI can be incredibly helpful when used in the right way. It’s not a replacement for real connection, but if clients are open to trying it (and only if they are), we sometimes explore together how tools like ChatGPT might support their everyday life in practical, tailored ways especially when executive function is running low or overwhelm takes over.

What’s important to say right from the start is that you’re always in the lead. These ideas don’t come from me handing over pre-made solutions they come from real conversations where clients bring challenges they’re facing, and we work together to find ways that feel right for them. If AI fits into that picture, we use it as a support tool, not a shortcut.

How AI Can Be a Support Tool in Coaching

If you’ve ever stared at a to-do list and felt your brain go blank, or found yourself putting off something simple like writing a message or planning dinner, you’re not alone. These are part of the reality of how ADHD or other neurodivergent profiles can affect executive functioning.

Here Are Some Ways Clients Have Used AI in Coaching

• Changing routines to reduce boredom: Some ADHD brains rebel against repetition. In one session, a client asked for help staying consistent without feeling trapped. We used AI to build a rotating routine that offered novelty within structure.

• Rehearsing difficult conversations: From asking for deadline extensions to setting boundaries with family, clients have practised tough conversations by typing them out with ChatGPT. It’s a private, no-pressure space to build confidence before doing it for real.

• Mind-mapped shopping or packing lists: One client was overwhelmed by planning a trip, so we worked together to create a visual, categorised packing list using ChatGPT grouped by type of item or task. It helped reduce decision fatigue and gave them a clear starting point.

• Meal planning that matches energy levels: Whether you're low on spoons, struggling with decision paralysis, or just tired of cooking, we’ve used AI to suggest quick, familiar meals based on ingredients and time all designed around your capacity.

  
  

These are just a handful of examples. The point is to use tools that feel right for you, and to stay curious about what helps your unique brain.

Turning Insight into Action: How AI Brings Coaching Metaphors to Life

Another way I use AI in coaching is to turn powerful moments of insight into something visual and lasting. Often, during a session, a client will use an analogy to describe how they’re feeling or where they feel stuck. It might be fleeting, just a passing image or phrase, but those are often the most powerful. Afterwards, I use AI to bring those metaphors to life in a way that reinforces their meaning and helps the client build on it between sessions.

For example, one client described their overthinking as a sky full of circling planes. They had so many thoughts, especially around certain fixations that weren’t benefitting them, but nothing ever seemed to land. They wanted more control over what they focused on. So I created a visual using AI: a “mental control tower” with a landing strip for useful, grounding thoughts and a ‘fly away’ zone for distractions or negative spirals. It was a way of making theirown metaphor into a tool they could use … to notice when a thought needed to land or be let go.

This is just one example of a bespoke, deeply personal coaching tool created from the coaching conversation itself. That’s what makes it so powerful: it belongs to the client. AI will never replace the human part of coaching. It’s not doing the real listening, or the noticing, or the gentle challenging that happens in the room. Instead, it can extend the impact of those moments, turning insight into something visual, memorable, and practical. For neurodivergent clients in particular, who often think in metaphors or need something to see, this kind of creative follow-up can make coaching feel more grounded, engaging, and effective.

AI Can’t Replace Coaching

AI can help you organise your thoughts, suggest new approaches, or act as a kind of scaffolding, but it doesn’t really know your story, your values, or what’s really going on underneath.

It can’t listen with real compassion. It can’t be that person who really gets it. It can’t walk alongside you while you figure out what you actually want.

That’s where coaching comes in.

Want to Try It Together?

If you’re curious about how AI tools might support your neurodivergent brain, and you’d like to explore that alongside someone who gets it. I’d love to work with you.

In my coaching sessions, we build from your goals, your ideas, and your unique way of thinking. Where it fits, we’ll weave in AI as a supportive tool — helping to bring structure, ease, or creative solutions to the challenges you’re navigating often between sessions.

You can book a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/nwalker3-uclan/30-minute-free-discovery-call

Or learn more about how I work at www.shineonadhdcoaching.co.uk