Executive functioning support for students and professionals
In addition to psychotherapy, I offer support with executive functioning. Many people need help reaching their goals and want practical skills for doing so. This work is highly focused on building the skills and intrinsic motivation necessary to stick to plans, follow through, manage distraction and focus, and stay motivated.
Knowing what to do is not the same as doing it
Many highly intelligent and capable people can articulate well what they would like to do to achieve their goals and yet still struggle to start, to keep track of time, or to hold the necessary steps in mind to bring a task to fruition. That gap between the idea and follow-through is what this work focuses on. A prominent executive functioning researcher, Russell Barkley, explains executive functioning as follows: executive functions are the self-directed actions we use to regulate our behavior across time toward future goals, and the difficulty tends to show up at the point of performance, in the moment something has to be done, more than in what a person knows (Barkley, 2012).
The work is practical and specific. Together we identify the situations where follow-through breaks down, build systems and strategies that fit how you work, test them in your own school or work life, and adjust until they hold. With practice you will learn to create the structure you need to succeed in your goals.
What executive functions are
Executive functions are the mental skills that let us plan, hold information in mind, resist distraction, and shift between tasks. Early research described three core components: inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013). More recent work argues that executive function is better understood as using control in the service of specific goals, shaped by what a person knows, values, and prefers (Doebel, 2020). That is why we start with your goals and your situations, not with generic drills.
Dawson and Guare (2018) describe eleven everyday executive skills, including task initiation, planning and prioritization, organization, time management, and metacognition. Most people have a profile of relative strengths and weaknesses across these skills, and we start by mapping yours and working to scaffold areas of weakness.
The strategies you will build
Executive functions can be improved with practice (Diamond & Ling, 2016), but training skills in isolation shows little carryover to other skills (Kassai et al., 2019). Stress, sadness, loneliness, and poor health impair executive functions, so we practice skills inside the situations where you need them and look at workload, stress, and support as part of the plan.
The work follows the cycle that researchers on self-regulated learning describe: plan and set goals, monitor and adjust while working, then reflect on the results (Zimmerman, 2002; Panadero, 2017).
Plan before you start
Task analysis, setting specific goals, and choosing a strategy, tied to the particular cues and contexts where you will use it.
Stay on track while working
Self-monitoring, focusing attention, and using if-then plans that specify when and where you will act. A 2021 meta-analysis found that pairing if-then plans with mental contrasting, imagining both the goal and the obstacle, modestly improved goal attainment (Wang, Wang, & Gai, 2021).
Learn from what happened
Evaluating what worked, deciding why, and adjusting. We treat each strategy as an experiment, so a plan that fails gives you information instead of a verdict on you.
We also work on externalizing, which means moving reminders, time, and steps out of your head and into your environment through calendars, visual cues, routines, and set-up of your workspace. Both Barkley (2012) and Dawson and Guare (2018) emphasize changing the environment and the point of performance, not relying on willpower and memory.
Motivation that comes from inside
Pressure, rewards, and consequences can get a task done once, but they tend to work poorly over time. Research on self-determination theory finds that motivation is more durable, and linked to better outcomes, when it is intrinsic or well internalized, and that it strengthens when people's needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are supported (Ryan & Deci, 2020). The work is built around those three needs.
You set the direction
You choose the goals and design the systems. I bring options and the research, not orders, so the strategies are ones you can see the point of.
You build early wins
We start with strategies you can use successfully this week, so you build evidence of your own competence early and carry it into harder tasks.
You have steady support
Regular check-ins with someone who is invested and nonjudgmental make accountability feel supportive rather than controlling.
The goal is that you come to see your follow-through as something you can build and control, with systems that keep working after our sessions end.
My background
I am a licensed psychologist with years of clinical experience with neurodiverse children, adolescents, and families at Kennedy Krieger Institute, including ADHD, autism, and learning differences. In that work I interpreted executive functioning assessments, explained the results to families, and recommended strategies for home and school. I also supervised and trained graduate students.
In this work, I bring that understanding of how executive functioning difficulties develop and what helps, while keeping the focus on skills, strategies, and goals.
Who this is for
I work with teens ages 13 and up, college and graduate students, and working adults, online. For teens, an initial conversation with a parent or guardian is typically part of getting started. Students with ADHD, autism, or learning differences are welcome, and so is anyone who wants a better system for getting things done.
How it works
Free consultation
A 15-minute call to hear what you are working on and answer your questions about how the sessions work.
Map and plan
We identify where follow-through breaks down, look at your strengths, and choose a few specific goals and strategies to start with.
Practice and adjust
You try strategies in your own school or work life between sessions, we review what happened, and we revise. Over time you take over more of the planning yourself.
References
- Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive functions: What they are, how they work, and why they evolved. Guilford Press.
- Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2018). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135-168.
- Diamond, A., & Ling, D. S. (2016). Conclusions about interventions, programs, and approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite much hype, do not. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 34-48.
- Doebel, S. (2020). Rethinking executive function and its development. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620904771
- Kassai, R., Futo, J., Demetrovics, Z., & Takacs, Z. K. (2019). A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence on the near- and far-transfer effects among children's executive function skills. Psychological Bulletin, 145(2), 165-188.
- Panadero, E. (2017). A review of self-regulated learning: Six models and four directions for research. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 422.
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860.
- Wang, G., Wang, Y., & Gai, X. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effects of mental contrasting with implementation intentions on goal attainment. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 565202.
- Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64-70.