The Manual Method is a coaching programme for late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD adults who are ready to write the operating manual they should have been given.

You were never broken. You were undocumented. That is a different problem with a different solution.

What this is

A structured coaching engagement built on the ODIM framework: Orientation, Documentation, Integration, Maintenance. The output is your Personal Operating Document, a living reference that maps how your specific system actually works. Specifications. Known issues. Power requirements. Compatible environments. Troubleshooting procedures. Maintenance schedule.

This is not a set of strategies you put away after twelve weeks. It is a document you live with and update for the rest of your life.

The approach is strengths-based, treats lived experience as data, and starts from the premise that you do not need fixing. You need documenting.

What this is not

Not therapy. Not a clinical service. Not a diagnostic pathway. Not an inspiration programme.

If you are in acute crisis, this is not the right room. Therapy is. Many clients in this programme are also in therapy; the two run in parallel and serve different functions. Therapy explores why you are the way you are. Documentation maps what you are.

The four formats

First 90 Days

For the newly diagnosed or questioning adult who needs stabilisation and orientation.

Four sessions over ninety days. Foundational vocabulary, initial POD sections, a clear sense of what kind of system you are running. The relief of accurate language.

This is for the person who just got the diagnosis and is standing in the doorway thinking: now what.

12-Week Flagship

The full build. Twelve weekly sessions across all four ODIM phases. Complete Personal Operating Document, including masking audit, compatible environments map, communication protocols, and a maintenance schedule.

For the client who is ready for the complete engagement. Twelve weeks. Four phases. One document that will be the most useful thing you own.

2-Day Intensive

Two consecutive days, in person or virtual. Compressed POD build. All four ODIM phases at depth.

Some brains do not do weekly drip-feed. They do deep dive. This is the deep dive.

Group Cohort

Six to eight participants. Ten weeks of facilitated POD work in community. Ninety-minute weekly live session plus an asynchronous channel.

The documentation is personal. The experience of doing it alongside others who understand is something else entirely.

How sessions work

Sessions are ninety minutes rather than fifty. Long enough to get into meaningful depth without the constant re-entry cost of short, frequent appointments. Every session has an explicit agenda shared in advance. Vague instructions produce processing paralysis; specific instructions produce high-quality engagement.

Between sessions, communication is asynchronous. Shared documents, voice notes, written check-ins. Real-time social processing is computationally expensive for this population, and clients consistently produce higher-quality insight in writing than in live conversation. This is not a limitation to work around. It is a feature of the design.

Investment

Indicative ranges in Australian dollars, inclusive of GST where applicable. Final figures are confirmed in the first conversation.

Format	Investment
First 90 Days	$900 to $1,200
Group Cohort	$1,500 to $2,000
1:1 Full Programme	$4,000 to $7,000
2-Day Intensive	$2,800 to $4,500

Common questions

I already have a therapist. Good. Keep them. This is not therapy. The two are complementary. Some clients find that the POD gives them something concrete to bring to therapy sessions. The documentation feeds the therapeutic work, not the other way around.

I do not have a formal diagnosis. You do not need one. The first principle of The Manual Method is documentation over diagnosis. The ODIM framework does not require a clinical label. It requires honest self-observation.

Will this fix me? No. You do not need fixing. You need documenting. The method does not promise to make you neurotypical or eliminate your challenges. It promises to give you accurate information about your own system so you can operate it more effectively and communicate your needs with precision.

How is this different from other autism or ADHD coaching? Most coaching starts from deficits and works toward management. This starts from architecture and works toward documentation. The output is not a set of strategies. It is your document, written by you, about you, in a structure that makes it usable.

What are your qualifications? Sam is not a clinician. He is a person with decades of lived experience operating the system he is helping you document, twenty years of coaching experience, and a framework he built from rigorous self-observation. The boundaries are clear: this is not therapy, not diagnosis, and refers out when clinical work is needed.

How to start

Email [email protected] with the subject line Coaching enquiry. Include a few sentences about where you are, what brought you here, and what you would want from the work. There is no intake form. Sam reads everything and replies personally.

Replies take as long as they take.

For referral partners

The Manual Method sits alongside clinical support, not in place of it. The programme produces a Personal Operating Document that clients can share with clinicians, partners, and employers. Strengths-based, respects the clinical boundary, and fills a gap that most therapeutic models do not cover: the granular, practical work of mapping how an individual brain actually operates in real conditions.

If you are a therapist, GP, social worker, or other clinician working with late-diagnosed adults, referrals are welcome. Sam coordinates with treating professionals where it serves the client. Email [email protected] with the subject line Referral partner enquiry.