Nurturing Your Autistic Identity – Mentoring workshops for young people

3 sessions of 1 hour each – 3 hours in total

Delivered virtually by a neurodivergent mentor, for autistic or AuDHD young people who are able to engage in at least a minimal way. If your ND young person is very uncomfortable engaging virtually please check with them before booking. The camera doesn’t have to be on and chat can be used rather than speaking, but if they are too uncomfortable it will be counter-productive.

An autism diagnosis is much more than just a ‘label’. If you’re autistic, you’ve been autistic your whole life and you will gradually become aware that you experience the world in a different way to many of your peers. Unfortunately, an autism diagnosis carries with it a stigma, and becoming aware of this stigma can be damaging to a young person’s wellbeing as they get older – and the later they are recognised as autistic, the more problematic this becomes. We teach a positive view of their autistic identity, how to recognise and understand strengths and challenges, self-regulate and become advocates for themselves and others.

Reducing stigma around autism depends not on the autistic young person to change, but everyone around them, which is why we advocate for whole family and school training on neurodiversity – the more you understand about difference, not deficit, the less likely you are to stigmatise. We strongly recommend your wider family and school undertakes training or educates themselves in addition.

These mentoring workshops will help to

  • Identify what being autistic means to the young person

  • Build knowledge of aspects of an autistic profile that are common such as interoceptive issues and alexithymia to help better understand themselves

  • Identify what triggers dysregulation and what helps to self-regulate

  • Develop self-advocacy skills

  • Understand communication issues and the Double Empathy problem

  • Understand sensory issues for autistic young people

  • Understand the benefits of energy accounting and setting boundaries

  • Understand why it’s so important (for life, not just for school) that autistic young people are listened to and their needs/requested validated rather than dismissed

  • Build knowledge of neurodiversity in a neuro-affirmative way

We include:

  • A booklet to print at home

  • Friendly and neuro-affirmative sessions in either Zoom or Teams at a time of your choice

PRICE: £180 (no VAT)

The link below will redirect you to PayPal to pay for the sessions and we will then contact you to arrange a suitable date and time. In future we hope to secure funding to make these sessions more accessible to all so please do check back if you are unable to participate at the moment.