Executive Functioning Coach West Hollywood, CA
The Ladder Method provides executive functioning coaching for Beverly Hills students from elementary school through college, and for adults. Beverly Hills families meet with a coach virtually over Zoom or Google Meet, or in person at our Sherman Oaks location.
We've coached executive function for over a decade and worked with hundreds of clients. About 70% of them have ADHD, autism or executive functioning challenges.
How the Program Works
Every client starts with a phone consultation and an assessment, then works with a matched coach on a weekly or biweekly schedule until the strategies hold without us.
Phone consultation. You talk with one of our enrollment specialists about what's happening and what needs to change.
Assessment. An assessment coach meets with the student and the family for a deeper evaluation.
Plan. Our evaluation team and our Student Success department build the plan from the assessment findings.
Coach match. We match each client with the coach best suited to their personality and objectives.
Sessions. Weekly or biweekly, focused on skill development, accountability and applying the skills to real situations.
Progress reviews. Your coach and the Student Success team track milestones and decide when to add a strategy or change one. Students, parents and adult clients get regular check-ins.
Graduation. Coaching ends when the client shows consistent independence and command of the strategies.
Most clients begin noticing improvements within 4 to 8 weeks.
How We Track Progress
Every student is tracked before the program starts, through the 18 months of working with us, and after the program ends.
Each year we evaluate outcomes for every student, 4th grade through university, who completes The Ladder Method program. We assess both skill development and emotional growth, and we include qualitative reflections from parents, students and coaches.
Our published 2024-25 figures cover all 4th through 12th graders and all university students who completed at least 2 semesters of coaching. They describe those cohorts, and the results page says they are not a guarantee. See our 2024-25 results and the case studies that go with them.
The changes clients report most often:
Higher academic performance
Better organization and time management
Less procrastination and anxiety
More confidence and self-reliance
Where Executive Function Gets Tested in Beverly Hills Schools
Beverly Hills Unified moves every student through 2 school changes: from 1 of 3 elementary schools into Beverly Vista Middle School for 6th grade, then into Beverly Hills High for 9th.
Since 2019, El Rodeo, Hawthorne and Horace Mann have served kindergarten through 5th grade, and Beverly Vista has served grades 6 through 8. Beverly Vista enrolled 744 students in 2023-24 with 4 academic counselors, about 273 students per counselor. Beverly Hills High enrolled about 1,100 students in 2025-26.
Both schools test well above the state, and both show English about 15 points ahead of math.
Beverly Vista, 2023-24: 67% of students met or exceeded the standard in English and 52% in math, against 47% and 35% statewide, per the school's accountability report card.
Beverly Hills High, 2025: 67.27% in English and 52.14% in math, against 48.81% and 37.30% statewide, per the Smarter Balanced results reported by EdSource.
A school-wide number says nothing about any one student. The assessment does. For middle and high school students, our coaching focuses on time management, study techniques and independent work habits. More on the move from elementary to middle school.
We've worked with students from Beverly Vista Middle School and from private schools across Los Angeles, including Harvard-Westlake, Marlborough, Brawerman and Sinai Akiba.
Before You Hire Any Executive Function Coach
The Title Is Not a License
The Board of Psychology licenses psychologists. The Board of Behavioral Sciences licenses marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, professional clinical counselors and educational psychologists. Coaches can't practice inside those licensed scopes. A coaching certificate comes from a private training program and grants no right to practice anything the state licenses.
Our coaches' degrees and training are real qualifications. None of them is a coaching license, because California doesn't issue one.
The first large survey of US ADHD coaches, published in JAMA Network Open on January 15, 2026, covered 481 coaches surveyed from October 2024 to April 2025:
85.0% had no professional license (396 of the 466 who answered).
90.5% worked without formal clinical supervision.
91.5% were self-employed, and 80.9% coached clients across state lines.
60.9% started during or after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lead author, Margaret Sibley of the University of Washington, described coaches as "squarely placing themselves outside of healthcare structures." The paper concludes that randomized clinical trials are still needed to establish whether ADHD coaching is safe and effective.
Which Research Is Being Cited
"Research-backed" on a coaching page can point at 3 different bodies of research. Ask which one.
Therapy research. Lauder, McDowall and Tenenbaum's 2024 meta-analysis pooled 23 studies of 3,835 adults with ADHD. Psychosocial treatment, mostly cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and cognitive training, had a medium effect on work outcomes, and medication a small one. Coaching wasn't among the interventions tested, and the authors say so.
Coaching research. Ahmann and colleagues' 2018 review found positive results in all 19 ADHD coaching studies it covered. Most had 10 or fewer participants and no control group, and only 3 reported on whether the gains lasted. A March 2026 study of 12-session adult coaching found medium to large gains, again without a comparison group.
Leadership coaching research. De Haan and Nilsson's 2023 meta-analysis of 37 randomized trials covers workplace and executive coaching.
A claim that doesn't say which of the 3 it means can't be checked.
5 Questions to Ask Any Coach
Is your certificate a state license? In California, no coaching certificate is. Ours come from specialized training in The Ladder Method framework, which combines executive functioning, evidence-based learning techniques and emotional awareness.
Who do you refer to when anxiety, depression or a medication question comes up? The answer should name a licensed clinician, because coaches can't diagnose or treat. In the JAMA survey, 78.9% of coaches referred clients out for formal ADHD evaluations.
Do you take health insurance? Most coaches don't. 4.4% of the surveyed coaches did.
How often are sessions, and when does coaching end? Ours run weekly or biweekly, and coaching ends when the client shows consistent independence with the strategies.
Is this executive function coaching or executive leadership coaching? They're different fields with different research. Ours is executive function coaching for students from elementary school through college, and for adults.
How Families Pay for Coaching
Most families pay out of pocket. In the 2026 JAMA survey, 4.4% of coaches accepted health insurance.
HSA or FSA. 27.0% of coaches reported clients paying with HSA or FSA funds. Some plan administrators reimburse coaching when a physician writes a letter of medical necessity tying it to a diagnosis. Others don't. Get the letter and your administrator's answer before the first session.
Employer. 22.7% of coaches reported an employer paying. Ask HR what your benefits cover.
Westside Regional Center. For regional center clients, Beverly Hills falls inside Westside Regional Center's service area. The center is at 777 Aviation Boulevard, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 258-4000. At least 3 business directories still list an old Culver City address. Ask your service coordinator whether coaching fits your plan before you pay.
Insurance through a clinician. If insurance has to pay, a licensed clinician who bills psychotherapy is the route that sometimes works. That's treatment, which is a different service.
When Coaching Is the Wrong First Purchase
Coaching isn't the right first step in 4 situations.
No diagnosis and a new pattern. Get a psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation first. Coaching builds systems. An evaluation explains why the old ones keep failing.
Anxiety, depression, substance use or self-harm. See a licensed clinician. Missed deadlines can be a symptom. Therapy focuses on emotional processing, and our coaching focuses on practical skill-building, time management and goal execution.
A content gap. Hire a subject tutor. A tutor teaches the subject. We teach students how to learn, plan and organize.
An IEP or 504 plan already in place. Ask the school what executive function support is written into it before you pay for a second version.
Who Does the Coaching
Our coaches come from education, psychology and learning science. The team includes coaches with master's degrees and teaching credentials, and every coach completes training in The Ladder Method framework.
You don't work with 1 person alone. Your coach works with our Student Success team, so more than 1 person reviews your student's progress.
The method was written by Candice Lapin, founder of The Ladder Method and author of "Parenting in the Age of Perfection: A Modern Guide to Nurturing a Success Mindset."
The 12 Skills We Coach, by Stage
Executive function is the set of 8 to 12 mental skills people use to plan a task, start it and finish it. We coach 12: organization, time management, working memory, self-monitoring, planning, focus and attention, task initiation, emotional regulation, task management, metacognition, goal-directed perseverance and flexibility.
What comes first depends on the stage:
Elementary school: organization, emotional regulation and task initiation.
Middle and high school: time management, study techniques and independent work habits.
College and adults: productivity systems, planning tools and self-motivation. See coaching for adults.
The strategies are concrete. Visual planners, digital systems and workspace management for organization. Time-blocking, reminders and realistic scheduling for time management. Micro-goals and structured accountability for task initiation. Note-taking frameworks and recall techniques for working memory. Mindfulness and reflection for emotional regulation. Adapted study methods and feedback for cognitive flexibility. Each strategy is set to the client's goals and learning style.
Questions Families Ask
Can we meet a coach in person?
In-person instruction runs at our Sherman Oaks location. Beverly Hills families can also work with a coach virtually over Zoom or Google Meet.
Is an executive function coach licensed in California?
No. California doesn't license coaching. A coach may separately hold a therapist's or psychologist's license, but the coaching title carries no license and no right to diagnose or treat.
Does insurance cover executive function coaching?
Rarely. 4.4% of the 481 coaches in the 2026 JAMA Network Open survey accepted health insurance. Some HSA and FSA administrators reimburse coaching with a physician's letter of medical necessity, so check with yours first.
Is executive function coaching the same as executive coaching?
No. Executive function coaching builds planning, organization and follow-through for students and adults. Executive coaching develops leaders at work and has its own research base.
Is an executive functioning tutor the same as a coach?
Families search both terms for the same service. An executive functioning tutor or coach teaches students how to learn, plan and organize. A subject tutor teaches the content of 1 subject.
How long before we see a change?
Most clients begin noticing improvements within 4 to 8 weeks. We track every student before the start, through the 18 months of working with us, and after the program ends.
Do you need a diagnosis to start?
Coaching doesn't require one. About 70% of our clients have ADHD, autism or executive functioning challenges. HSA or FSA reimbursement and regional center funding usually depend on documented eligibility.
Can the Westside Regional Center pay for coaching?
It depends on the client's plan. Beverly Hills is in Westside Regional Center's service area, (310) 258-4000, so regional center clients should ask their service coordinator before paying.
What ages do you coach?
Elementary school through college, plus adults. The focus changes with the stage.
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