My daughter is still very early in her autism acceptance journey and merely nodding an answer, gesturing or writing odd words, all off camera and silently, was her part in the ‘conversations’. However, with this I became thrilled. This was the most engaged my child had been with anything during her 9+ months of autistic burnout and inability to access school. Olivia’s gentle, empathetic approach enabled my daughter to hear from someone else’s lived experience a possible way of navigating difficult situations/environments. The ability to access the sessions at her own pace enabled her to feel safe enough that by the last session she was able to come partially on camera, co-produce a slide about her special interest and discuss its content. The ability to share the thing which brings her joy with someone who was genuinely interested brought her a lot of happiness. An obvious answer about what else could be done is that it could be for longer to enable the child and mentor to build up even more of a relationship and work on a deeper level. I also wonder if doing the ‘about me’ work earlier rather than at the end would have enabled a more two way communication sooner, however, this is with hind sight and of course may not have worked, indeed, my daughter may not have felt able to contribute at all earlier in the sessions. However, I am so appreciative that my child was able to access this service as there is nothing else of is kind available to us, she was discharged from CAMHS for not engaging and there is nothing else available. We have been left to find our own way through this by our LEA. The Autistic Girls Network, the Mentoring, Olivia and Cathy have been a huge source of support, information and Community and I cannot thank you all enough. I wish you all the very best with everything and please know, you are making an enormous difference.