At Eddie’s house, the stairs are never just stairs.
Eddie—our therapy dog in training—has transformed them into her playground and her workshop of persistence. She drops a ball from the top step and watches it bounce, ricochet, and tumble down. Then she launches herself after it, paws skimming the steps, body stretched in full chase. At the bottom she seizes her prize, carries it back up, and begins again. Drop, chase, fetch, climb. Drop, chase, fetch, climb.
Eddie repeats this ritual until she is panting, tired, and content. The task of fetching—a skill she is practicing and perfecting—has been transformed into something joyful. The staircase isn’t an obstacle for Eddie. It’s an invitation.
Eddie’s game holds wisdom. Progress, she reminds us, is rarely a leap from bottom to top. It’s more often a rhythm of steps—repeated with energy and curiosity—until mastery quietly arrives.
Steps and the ADHD Brain
For individuals with ADHD, this wisdom is deeply relevant. One of the greatest struggles in ADHD is not talent or intention but task completion. Brains with ADHD often wrestle with Executive Functioning (EF) skills—the invisible processes that allow us to plan, prioritize, sustain attention, regulate emotions, and move steadily through a sequence of actions. When EF skills are compromised, large tasks can feel overwhelming, with no clear beginning or end in sight.
But what seems impossible can feel more doable when it’s broken down into steps. Eddie doesn’t conquer the staircase. Instead, she engages with it, one ball-drop at a time. The joy she finds in the process fuels her persistence.
For ADHDers, the lesson is clear: make steps visible—and whenever possible, make them engaging.
Coaching Makes Steps Visible
Research shows that Executive Function (EF) Coaching can be highly effective, helping individuals with ADHD get started on tasks and carry them through to completion. Coaches can help the brain notice the steps hidden within small, medium, and large tasks, while offering strategies for tackling them. Clear, concrete actions are outlined. Barriers are anticipated. Responses to setbacks are rehearsed.
When coaching is comprehensive, emotions are included too—because frustration, sadness, and anger can all rise when ADHD makes daily demands hard to meet.
Coaching helps clients not only with actions and behaviors, but also with feelings that accompany the journey.
For many families, July and August feel like an up-ended toy box: bedtime drifts later, screens sneak into pillows, and healthy snacks get replaced by whatever fits in a beach-bag pocket. Sleep debt climbs and tempers shorten—classic signs that self-regulation systems (in kids and adults) are wobbling. Eddie’s schedule offers a gentle blueprint:
Coaching at Possibilities
At the Possibilities Clinic, we offer Executive Functioning/ADHD Coaching to children, teens and adults. We also provide University and College Coaching to support young adults who need support keeping up with postsecondary work, while also supporting their mental health. All our Coaches are licensed professionals, including Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Social Workers. Weekly or biweekly sessions provide rhythm and
accountability. They also create a space where progress is recognized, persistence is encouraged, and mental health is addressed.
For young clients who love drawing, our Doodle, Do, Done program brings a creative twist to our coaching work. With a Coach’s guidance, kids draw out the steps of tasks they need to complete. A doodled sketch becomes a map, or graphic novel, of what needs to be done and how to tackle it systematically.
Check out our Cartoon Amazing Adventures book!
If you’re interested in this approach, check out our book, Cartoon Amazing Adventures, published by Possibilities Press. The book begins with drawing lessons to teach the basics of creating characters and scenes. The rest of the pages are blank cartoon panels—an open canvas for imagination, planning, and play. There are notes at the back for parents, teachers and coaches, too, explaining how cartooning can support focus, executive functioning, and mental health. When clients draw a sequence of pictures, they are practicing how to see steps, order events, and hold ideas in memory. In essence, they are doing what Eddie does on her staircase: turning process into play.
Get Started
So here is Eddie’s invitation: Make steps fun to get stuff done.
If you or your child is struggling with ADHD, consider what structures and systems might help. Our Coaches can support you, your child, or your teen. Remember, progress isn’t about leaping the staircase in one bound. It’s about turning each step into movement, each movement into persistence, and persistence into a task well done.
