Nurturing Your Autistic Identity – Mentoring sessions for young people

3 or 6 sessions of 1 hour each

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 sessions 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 for 3 session or £360 for 6 sessions (noVAT)

The links below direct you to PayPal to pay for the sessions, 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.