Ben Pollard | ADHD Coach and Flourishing founder

A smiling man with glasses and tousled hair, wearing a black blazer, standing outdoors during sunset with a blurred landscape in the background.

Ben Pollard | ADHD Coach and Flourishing founder

Helping people with ADHD & Autism feel seen, heard, and capable of flourishing - because I know what it's like when your brain has other plans.

  • I'm an ADDCA-trained ADHD coach, a member of the International Coaching Federation, and the founder of Flourishing. To date I've delivered more than 500 hours of coaching to neurodivergent adults.

    I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2015. The combination of professional training and lived experience shapes how I coach: practically, and with deep respect for how neurodivergent brains actually work.

    Before coaching, I spent over a decade in in community organising and social entrepreneurship, where I saw how people closest to problems usually hold the best answers — and how powerful it is when they are genuinely listened to. On this principle, I co-found Local Welcome, a community-building charity that grew to several thousand members across more than eight UK cities. During COVID, our team launched ADHD Together, an online peer support service delivered in partnership with the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and King's College London.

  • I coach adults with ADHD and autism, and the people who live and work alongside them. My focus is helping clients build a life that works with how their brain operates — not against it.

    I hold an advanced qualification from ADDCA (the ADHD Coaching Certification Academy), and was among the first UK-based coaches to complete this advanced training. I'm also a member of the International Coaching Federation, with more than 500 hours of coaching experience.

  • The real power of coaching, for me, is deep listening combined with powerful questions.

    When we don't learn to listen well — to others and to ourselves — relationships strain and disconnection grows. We move through life filling in gaps and making assumptions about what people think, feel, want, and need.

    What I offer is the experience of being truly seen, heard, and respected. Through that process, I help clients develop those same listening skills — both for others, and for their own emotions and needs. Many clients with ADHD have spent years reacting to a need for dopamine and the habits built around it, and have lost touch with what they actually want or what they need to flourish.

    Coaching creates space to pause, to recognise emotions, and to make choices aligned with values. It's not talking therapy — it's future-focused and action-oriented, built around developing practical skills and systems that work with neurodivergent brains. Many clients also work with a therapist alongside, before, or after coaching, particularly where trauma or relationships are involved.

  • I believe a world in which all brains can flourish would be better for everyone, and that belief shapes everything I do.

    Compassion, connection and justice aren't soft words — they are the foundations for a life worth living, and they take courage, effort and time to develop. They are also, in my experience, values shared by many whose brains don't fit the world as it is currently designed.

    For me, flourishing means radical acceptance: of the challenges and limits of the world as it is today, of the strengths each of us brings, and of the stories that have shaped us. It means having the courage to pause, and to live our own story rather than reading from a script that was never written for us.

  • Outside of coaching, I'm a keen cyclist and have spent the last few years restoring a hundred-year-old Thames barge into a houseboat — a project that's taught me as much about patience and pacing as any coaching training.

  • If you're tired of fighting your brain and ready to start working with it, I'd love to hear from you. Book a free consultation and let's explore whether coaching could help you build systems that work for the brain you have, and the life you want to build.