Meet Jessica Covington | Holistic ADHD Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Covington and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When my son was diagnosed with ADHD at age 7, I jumped right into all the research I could find in order to understand and help him. Pretty quickly, I realized a number of things:

It all sounded shockingly familiar (which is what led to my own diagnosis about a year later).

I was viewing all of it through a body-mind, physical fitness lens, because of my background in dance and health coaching.

Everyone else in the field was approaching ADHD top-down — trying to get the brain to make the body cooperate. Maybe I’m a natural contrarian, or maybe it’s the ADHD, but I knew body and mind are always connected and communicating — I knew I could do it the other way around by getting the body moving to support the brain.

There is so much shame and stigma attached to having a different thinking style. From a very young age, we are told in all kinds of ways that there’s only one “right” way and everyone else is “wrong.”

These realizations formed the spark of my work. I started experimenting with movement and other lifestyle changes, and then shared some of those with other people. When I saw the power they had to help people work WITH their minds instead of against them, I knew this was the work meant for me.

From there, I set out to learn even more of the coaching craft from some of the best in the business, and I’m grateful to continue learning every day from both clients and mentors alike.

Tons of experiments, hundreds of clients, and several years later, I’ve developed a 4-part framework that serves all my clients (each with individual goals and needs): Exercise, Nutrition, Metacognition/Mindfulness, and Systems/Habits/Tools.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
From an early age, I’ve been a dancer — so, I’ve really always seen the body as integral to a person’s being. In dance, we have to be really attuned to our inner workings as well as the outer, because they influence each other. So, I think this really set the stage for the holistic foundation of what I do today. (And yes, I’m still dancing, many decades later!)

Later, I found myself in human resources: I worked primarily in a law firm to find and develop attorney talent. My favorite part of this work was helping people find what really suited their natural strengths, and then helping them get even better and happier at doing it. I think of this experience — coupled with the health and fitness work I did in my spare time — as my earliest coaching work.

I’m endlessly curious and I love learning and finding connections. Like many of us with ADHD, the learning has to happen in my own way, though — a cookie-cutter program wasn’t really my speed. Plus, those I found took a really deficit-based and neurotypical tone. Instead, I made my own curriculum, pieced together from study with various experts in the fields of ADHD and coaching. This is really exciting to me because I get to bring my clients an eclectic collection of modalities and philosophies, reflecting the variety in their own experiences. It’s also really exciting that I get to be my whole, unmasked self at work: I don’t have to make any excuses, and I get to learn daily and pass it on.

Aside from all that, the thing that sets my work apart the most is that it’s holistic. Sometimes it feels like the entire world is telling people with ADHD to “just do this one thing,” whether it’s medication, therapy, a calendar, timers, or whatever. But we’re human, and so much more complex than that. All the parts of our lives are constantly intertwined and deserve attention, so real help is never as simple as “just do this one thing.” Taking a multifaceted approach not only helps people get better results faster, it also helps them feel respected as whole humans, accepted exactly as they are.

If I could convey only one message to the world, it would be that different is GOOD, and we need all types of thinkers, feelers and beings. It’s such a beautiful thing when each person can bring their strengths to a team, and be honored for that unique perspective.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Wow, what a great question! I was just chatting with a friend about this recently. I’d love for them to see all the major attractions, of course — all the Downtown and Midtown must-do things like the Aquarium, Centennial and Piedmont Parks, the Civil Rights Museum, the Fox, the Botanical Garden, the High, and more. I’m a big fan of all the top-floor restaurants, with Nikolai’s Roof being my favorite.

Off the beaten path, though, I really love history and architecture, so I’d want friends to visit Oakland, Westview, Mt. Olive and Crestlawn Cemeteries, We’d zip by the Candler and Flatiron Buildings, and Rhodes Hall. Fairlie-Poplar, Sweet Auburn, Inman Park, and Avondale Estates would all be on the agenda as well.

On the neighborhood tour, we’d surely hit anyplace along the Beltline, and make sure not to miss Little Five Points, Ansley Park, Grant Park, Old Fourth Ward and the booming Westside. I love street art, so the Living Walls would be a must (in addition to the less-sanctioned art all around town).

In the right season, we’d be sure to catch some of the amazing dance that’s happening in Atlanta these days — Atlanta Ballet (of course), Neighborhood Ballet and their Rise City Dance, Room to Move, Ballethnic, Full Radius, Fly on a Wall, Kit Modus and so many more.

If they’re friends of mine, they probably have a dog or two, so we’d make sure to hit the dog beach in Morningside Park, Sweetwater Creek, and all of Atlanta’s great intown hiking trails, too!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My kids and husband get my first shoutout. It was the discovery of my son’s learning style that really set all this in motion; my daughter’s and my own came shortly after. My husband, as the lone neurotypical among us, has an enormous amount of patience and has always supported our family culture that “different is GOOD.”

Dr. Edward Hallowell, author and pioneer in the field of ADHD, was the first to help me see the power of a strength-based approach to ADHD. I’m forever grateful for that.

More shoutouts would go to all the thinkers and researchers bringing ADHD into the light, focusing on its specific impact on women and girls, and advancing education and inclusion around all types of neurodiversity.

Website: https://www.fit-ology.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitology_adhd/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacovington/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitologyADHDcoach

Other: Medium: https://medium.com/@fitology