Building Balance by Neurodiversity Specialist Luke Sommerlad

Building Balance is a coaching practice offering executive function and burnout coaching for neurodivergent adults, run by London-based coach Luke Sommerlad. He was diagnosed with ADHD in 1994 and describes spending years managing on medication alone, without the practical strategies that make a diagnosis useful day to day — a gap that eventually led him to retrain as a coach himself. That lived experience sits alongside a substantial professional background: over a decade working as a butler, estate manager and executive assistant to high-net-worth clients, plus a four-year chef’s apprenticeship and a period as executive chef across thirteen hotels, including running his own catering business and managing large hospitality teams. He describes this history as the source of the systems-thinking and people-management skills he now brings to client work, rather than treating it as incidental biography.

On the credentials side, Sommerlad holds ADDCA AACC accreditation for ADHD coaching — described on the site as the sector’s benchmark qualification — alongside a Connections in Mind certificate in executive functions coaching, a BTEC Level 4 diploma in nutrition and health coaching from IINH, ICF-certified burnout coaching training through Balanceology, and membership of bodies including UKIHCA and the ICF, where his PCC accreditation is stated to be in its final stages. He is also a qualified Mental Health First Aider. This is a fuller certification picture than most coaching listings in the directory can point to, and it spans several distinct disciplines rather than a single ADHD-coaching qualification.

The coaching itself is built around what the site calls an all-rounded approach: executive function support for overwhelm, task-switching and organisation sits alongside work on perfectionism, imposter feelings and rejection sensitivity, with nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress management treated as integral rather than add-on topics. The stated aim is to help clients work with their brain’s wiring rather than fight it, using personalised strategies rather than a fixed programme. The practice works with both diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodivergent adults, including people who are waiting for an ADHD or autism assessment, and it also positions itself as a referral partner for medical professionals — suggesting some integration with clinical pathways rather than operating entirely outside them. Framing throughout treats neurodivergence as a difference in neurology rather than a deficit to be corrected, and the coaching is described as starting from a discovery call, though the site does not set out session length or format.

Several client testimonials are published on the site, describing the coaching as having identified specific patterns that were tripping up day-to-day functioning, and crediting Sommerlad with explaining underlying mechanisms — one client references a conversation about dopamine regulation and ADHD — in a way that translated into practical, achievable changes rather than abstract advice. Taken together, the combination of a personal ADHD history, a wide-ranging set of coaching and health-related qualifications, and a broad remit covering executive function, burnout and nutrition makes this a coaching offer aimed at neurodivergent adults wanting integrated, whole-life support rather than narrowly focused productivity coaching.