Training For Those
Working Therapeutically with Autistic Adults
This page is about learning events related to Working Therapeutically with Autistic Adults
There is currently no training available to purchase at the moment.
Previous learning events included features as described below
What are our learning events?
Training courses are written for counsellors and psychotherapists who are concerned about equity and inclusion regarding neurodiversity, and, most importantly, are very concerned about autistic people when they come into therapy.
What we are offering here isn’t a ‘model’ of therapy, as such. But our training is focusing on being neuroaffirming, culturally attuned, trauma informed, and social justice minded, and genuinely therapeutic. These are key elements of being neurodiversity-affirming, and our course emphasises the skills of doing good therapy as well. Our work as therapists must be leading to outcomes of better mental health and wellbeing of autistic clients.
We take the positionality of the bio-psycho-social model, rather than the medical model, in all that we believe in. The course presentations are around big subjects, such as relationships, minority stress, being a human being, the history of autism as it relates to us therapists, and much more.
Why do therapists do training to work with autistic clients?
You probably already know this, that legally, autistic people have a right to mental healthcare being adjusted to their needs. And yet, what exactly does that mean - ‘adjusted to their needs?’ Does it mean that therapists have to adjust the design and delivery of therapy so that it works for autistic people? Yes, it does. You know, autistic people themselves state that the biggest barrier to therapy is the lack of knowledge of the therapist about autistic people. The research materials show this, and it is what we hear from clients on a weekly basis. Autistic clients do know when a therapist actually does not understand what real autistic people are like, and the realities of life experiences and wellbeing.
Autistic people have the most challenges with their mental health and suicide, and yet they are the population that are least likely to seek help. Our sector needs to rebuild trust in the quality healthcare that we have the potential to provide to improve mental health outcomes for autistic clients.
What is the format usually like on the training days?
The training is delivered live in a group of attendees and trainers on Zoom.
Each course module is one day. Each day has 4 sessions.
From 10 am until around 11:20 am (then a15 min break)
From 11:35 to around 1 pm (then one hour for lunch)
From 2 pm to around 3:20 pm (then a 15 minute break)
From 3:40 to around 5 pm. (end of the day, end of module)
Nearly all of the sessions have something presented and that then is followed by a group discussion related to it.
Additionally, there is a supervisory clinical discussion group that you can come to (10 am until 12 noon). We found these to be really lovely for bonding, processing, and reflecting together (also an option of bringing your client work for supervision or for group insights).
How will this enrich my work?
The learning materials have been written by autistic people who are psychotherapists with inishgts and expertise in autism and neurodiversity, as well as in therapy -
The course curriculum includes insights from the clinical experiences of the trainer's professional therapy and supervision practice, their own lived experience (along with those of attendees) and learning assertions that are supported by up-to-date research.
Overall, what emerges is that colleagues who study with us are impacted by the experiences on the course and this becomes integrated. We found that what happened as the course was going along was that the attendees were evolving as professionals. Paramount is our respect for you and for what you already know and do in your therapeutic practice. in the ways that you already know it. And we join together with who and where you are (and who we all are, in fact) along with what is contained in the course materials, to enrich us all with the added layer of the lens of autistic people. Insights, lightbulb moments, and thought-provoking times follow our exploration of autistic clients’ inner experience and outer realities. We leave with this informing our work.
Is this for me?
If you feel reasonably skilled to work with autistic adults already, and yet know there are some ways in which you feel there’s something not always working out with those clients, our learning events and courses offer a lot of information and practical how-to’s. And, because real clients are never like case vignettes in books, the group discussions are invaluable for exploring the nuances involved. equips you to work therapeutically with autistic clients and feel confident about having an inclusive practice that enhances (and saves) the lives of autistic people coming therapy.
If you are already doing good work with autistic clients (that is actually therapeutic) we know that you will also benefit from this course. When you have a group of therapists from a variety of backgrounds and training modalities, there is a lot to offer each other in the viewpoint sharing realm, as we talk through the work that we do. And with everything focused on deeply understanding and responding to autistic adult clients, we find that we travel from a place of being with clients therapeutically from intuition to a place of informed work about how and why therapy is therapeutic for autistic clients. This is, not only empowering for the therapist, but also is exciting and interesting progression and development as a professional person.
The Subject matter
On our previous coures, our curriculum was based on the following:
understanding the client group, and the work of provision of therapy for autistic adult clients.
Integratong principles into personal therapist identity and transfering them to practice
We conceptualise our client, and explore and articulate what therapy is and what the role of therapist is, and what may include, for appropriate and relevant attuned therapy for such clients.
We study the theory of autistic clients in context of the broader living conditions, and in relation to norms and the way things are done.
And, in group space discussions, we share and make meaning of autistic clients in real lives and real therapy work. And we explore the relevance of interpersonal interactions and the typical issues and themes that arise in our therapy room.
We also take an approach to creating a lens through which to see therapeutic opportunity and highlight ways in which there could be replicated harms or non-therapeutic approaches or responses for autistic people. And using this. as a lens to see can inform our clinical judgments, decisions, and approaches, or assist us in articulating our work.
Additionallu we explore themes of inclusion, power and privilege and how those dynamics affect lives and relationships uniquely. With self-replexivity we talk through the therapuetic relationship, as a container within which our work is usually conducted, and how that can be shaped by such themes. and what things are we mindful to keep in consideration regarding oppression, or minoritisation of interests or the dominance of norms and expectations , and, again this can inform us using the aforementioned lens, about how may articulate what is therapeutic and why it is so, and why similar a[[roaches might not be.
Accordingly, our discussions are live and are based on actual attendees’ explorations and themes of their actual work or anticipated work and projects. Therefore, we . can’t tell you exactly what content (topics of relevant discussion) is in the course, however, each course is adapted to who is in the course (attendees) and what their needs and interests are. So some of the sections of the course will be especially adapted to what the group needs.