About Alison Hogan ADHD Coach

Hi, I’m Alison. I have ADHD too. I’m an ADHD Coach based in Sydney.

After decades of being undiagnosed and not understanding myself, I now work with adults who were diagnosed later in life (or strongly recognise themselves in ADHD experiences).

I bring together professional training and compassionate evidence-informed coaching using an ADHD lens.

Why Midlife Divergent?

You might look at the name Midlife Divergent and wonder whether it applies to you if you don’t consider yourself to be in midlife.

For me, the name isn’t really about age.

It’s about an experience many adults have after a later‑in‑life ADHD diagnosis:

How did I get this far without knowing and what do I do now everything finally makes sense?

Midlife speaks to that experience of reflection, recalibration, and choice that often arrives during adulthood. Divergent honours the fact that your brain has always worked differently, even if you didn’t have language for it. But it also references the divergent path and story that is now possible.

I work with adults of many ages who resonate with that feeling. Whether your diagnosis came in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, or beyond. If you’re navigating the impact of understanding your brain later than you should have had to, you’re welcome here.

Certifications & professional memberships

Certified ADHD-Informed Coach: Gold Mind Academy

Professional Certified Coach: International Coach Academy

International Coaching Federation (ICF) Member

Mental Health First Aider

My ADHD story: everything finally makes sense

One random Sunday, I read a newspaper interview where someone said, 'Now I know I have ADHD, I’m not [insert one of my long-held negative self-beliefs].'

Out of nowhere, the light switched on.

I spent the rest of the day googling ADHD, texting people who’d known me at school, and making a doctor’s appointment for the next day.

At that appointment, I burst into tears telling the GP I thought I might have ADHD. She told me I seemed sad and sent me away.

Later, someone replied to one of my texts suggesting I’d done too well at school to have ADHD.

So I did what many late-diagnosed adults do. I spent another three years assuming the negative self-belief must be true after all. I told myself I was being silly.

Until the light switched on again.

This time, I didn’t stop. I pushed for a referral and eventually saw a psychiatrist who actually understood ADHD.

(Yes. All very ADHD. How did it take so long.)

After my diagnosis, everything shifted

For the first time, I understood that I’d been filling an explanatory void with stories, often unkind ones, about myself.

So began the work of figuring out what to do with this new information. It looked something like this:

immense relief, mixed with real grief about what might have been different if I’d known decades earlier
trying every hack and system, determined to ‘fix’ things
realising that while some strategies helped, I was quietly trying to make myself neurotypical and blaming myself again when that didn’t work.

Later, I learned just how common this phase is after a late diagnosis.

What followed was more helpful:

learning to balance change with acceptance
practising self-compassion
letting go of doing everything on my own
working with an ADHD Coach.

Through that process, I discovered the work I wanted to do in the world and began training as an ADHD Coach myself. I now work with clients navigating their own late diagnosis.

If you’re wondering how I work with clients, you can read more about ADHD Coaching sessions here →