Coaching that complements your clinical work.
I know my lane. ADHD coaching is not therapy, and it is not trying to be. It works alongside the clinical care you provide — focused on the practical, day-to-day translation of insight into action, the executive function, regulation, and strengths-based skill building that most therapy hours simply do not have time for.
01
Where Coaching Fits
Skill-building, not symptom processing
Time management, task initiation, prioritization, follow-through, sleep, sensory regulation, RSD recovery loops — the executive function and behavioral architecture that supports the work happening in your office.
A neurobiology-first frame
Patients learn how their ADHD brain actually works. The shame layer often quiets considerably once the wiring is named, which can free up therapeutic work to go deeper.
Strengths before deficits
Sessions start from what is already working. For patients with long histories of being told they are too much or not enough, this can be a meaningful complement to clinical care.
02
What I Do Not Do
Diagnose, treat, or manage mental health conditions.
Provide therapy, trauma processing, or crisis intervention.
Replace or interfere with the therapeutic relationship.
Advise on medication; that conversation belongs with the prescriber.
03
When I Refer Back to You
Symptoms emerge that are outside coaching scope (active depression, trauma activation, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, substance concerns).
A patient appears to need clinical support before behavioral change is realistic.
A patient without a therapist begins surfacing material that needs one. I will say so, plainly.
04
Good Fits for Sanctuum Coaching
Late-diagnosed adults working through identity and grief alongside the practical rebuild.
High-functioning patients whose lives look fine on paper but who are quietly burning out.
Patients stuck between insight and action, who know what to do but cannot consistently do it.
Women whose ADHD presentation has been missed, minimized, or misattributed for years.
Parents of ADHDers who need support and understanding.
"I welcome concurrent therapy. The best outcomes I see are with patients whose therapist and coach are pulling in the same direction."
05
What We Work On Together
Time & Task Management
Sensory Processing & Overwhelm
Career & Life Transitions
Emotional Regulation
Medication & Non-Medication Options
Late Diagnosis Processing & Grieving
Executive Function Skills
Rejection Sensitivity & RSD
Financial Management
Relationships & Communication
About Me
I have lived it.
And I have studied it.
Carli Derifield, M.Sc.
ADHD & Executive Function Coach
✉ carli@sanctuum.com
☎ 714.262.6955
◆ www.sanctuum.com
⌂ Newport Beach, CA
I grew up in Ireland, lived across Europe and Australia, and now call Newport Beach, California home. I am a mom of two ADHD teenagers and a wife to a neurotypical husband.
A 25-year career was spent in a highly technical, science-driven corner of healthcare — an industry where decisions are made on validated data, where protocols and regulations exist because lives depend on them. From the outside, it looked like I had figured it out. I hadn't. Behind the success was a woman who was completely exhausted. Masking constantly. Building rigid systems just to survive each day, and 49 years with lived experience of undiagnosed ADHD.
"Working with my ADHD has not made me less successful. It has made me more. I had been following the wrong set of rules, using the wrong playbook."
M.Sc. and successful start-up entrepreneur, 2x successful exits. I hold a Master of Science and advanced professional training from MIT. I am trained as an ADHD coach through the ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA), with PAAC and ICF coaching certification in-process, and a member of the ADHD Coaches Organization.
The training taught me how to evaluate evidence. The lived experience taught me what it feels like to sit where your patients sit: overwhelmed, capable, and wondering why everything has to be so hard.
I created Sanctuum because the support I needed when I needed it did not exist. Something grounded in real science but delivered with warmth, humor, and no judgment. Something that meets people exactly where they are.