Working therapeutically with autistic adults - Live on Zoom

The certificate in working therapeutically with autistic adults.

For counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists.

6 full days (Sept-Dec 2025) Saturdays - live on Zoom

• Plus two live online clinical discussion supervision group mornings included.
• Plus two hours of training videos to watch in your own time, and a WhatsApp chat group for keeping in touch with the group and Companion Workbooks for each module.

42 CPD hours

'Certificate in working therapeutically with autistic adults' awarded on completion.

This neuroaffirming course is trans-modality (it is suitable for any model of therapy that you already use). We welcome therapists with all backgrounds and training perspectives as there isn't only one modality that 'works' for autistic clients. This course is to help you make sense of how you already conceptualise therapy and as an extra layer of awareness for applying an autism lens in your work as a therapist with autistic adult clients.

What's included?

• 6 live training days (Saturdays)
• Time: 10 am to 5 pm GMT (UK and Ireland time)
• The group meets live on Zoom
• Separate supervisory clinical discussion group sessions included in the course fee
• 2 hours of extra training videos supplied for you to watch in your own time
• Reading list and resources are provided (multimedia)
• Subject handouts are provided (our own materials plus research papers, etc)
• A self-reflective journal to document your learning insights
• A companion workbook for each module
• WhatsApp group for asynchronous chat and to see the extra resources
• Video replays are provided for course attendees and are available for 6 months
• The certificate is awarded on completion
• Automatic listing on the therapist's directory for 6 months after completion
• Free ticket to live online conference event (2025 or 2026)

Course contents

The course has been written and run three times now. February to May 2024 was the first time, and September to December 2024 the second time. March to the end of May the third time. 

We can tell you what content is in the course. We have a syllabus designed as modules covering different subject matter in each. However, each course is adapted to who is in the course (our colleague 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, or in response to how the professional discussions are going. Ultimately, we do cover all of the subjects.

Here is what is in the course (plus anything extra that we add or is requested):

Working therapeutically with autistic adult clients in the following areas:

• Internalised ableism
• Stigmatisation of autism (and internalised stigma)
• The journey of identity reformation for late-identified autistic adults
• Burnout: Identifying it, immediate coping, recovery planning, energy accounting in a new way.
• Understanding shutdowns
• Why procrastination or inertia is relevant and useful
• 'Meltdowns’ and high arousal states
• Dealing with organising life and executive functioning
• Significance of life experiences of being pathologised, oppressed and marginalised
• The role of social scripting, stereotyping and social norms causing harm
• Issues around eating, including autistic clients and eating disorders
• Gender differences with autistic people (and the relevance of gender historically)
• Issues of sleeping, sleeplessness, worry, and intrusive images/thoughts.
• Better experiences of going to GP’s (and other medical experiences)
• Autistic anxiety, including C-PTSD, OCD, and social anxiety.
• The history of autism as it is relevant to therapists (to underpin clarity about healing)
• How therapy can harm clients (even well-intentioned therapists) and the alternatives
• The collective trauma of the autistic population
• Overview of what is therapeutic for the autistic client population in general
• How to select what is therapeutic for each individual autistic client
• Discussion of therapeutic modalities - eg TA, CBT, Narrative Therapy, Person Centred
• Where is the social justice issue here? How to approach this.
• Neuroaffirming language, and presuppositions relevant to autistic adults.
• Autistic community and culture: support, information, belonging
• Relationships and friendships: Risks, realities, and a new approach
• Crises that autistic people can face (and clients have often encountered in life)
• Autistic 'fixating' or hyperfocus, versus obsessing and addictions,
• Being mindful about the therapeutic relationship with autistic clients
• The processes, e.g. power-sharing as a baseline approach, and why this is useful
• Let's talk about autistic processing.
• Body awareness and emotions (how to identify and manage feelings)
• Knowing the self: Reclaiming, emerging, (unconscious unmasking) and conscious unmasking decisions
• Self-ownership, self-asserting, and self-advocacy
• Discussing self-disclosure decisions
• Addressing barriers to inclusion
• Fulfilment and self-actualisation (Based on 'Quality of Life' framework)
• Workplace accommodations: Rights, responsibilities and relationships with colleagues, HR, and managers.
• Autistic people with ADHD also (AudHD)
• Discussions of our actual current client work
• Case study exercises

and more, and more, and more...

All training content is supported by clinical knowledge, lived experience, and scientific research.

Both trainers are autistic psychotherapists, supervisors, authors, and trainers. And they each have over 25 years of clinical practice. (see more below in 'about the host' section - or look on the Vanguard Neurodiversity Training website 'trainers' page).

Is this course for me?

If you are already doing good work with autistic clients (that is actually therapeutic), you will benefit from this course. It is not a course about autism, but rather about deepening therapeutic insights and skills. The course content and resulting discussions with fellow attendees (counsellors, psychotherapists, arts therapists, psychologists) are not at the basic level of understanding of autism or of being a therapist. This deepens and enriches the insights shared and gained, with full focus on your own current and future work with autistic adult clients. We used to separate out ADHD as a subject matter, but now integrate this into the course throughout, because, in practice, often clients may identify as AuDHD, or may have an ADHD-er partner. 

We would love you to consider joining us on this very enriching learning event.

To arrange a half-hour Zoom chat with Vauna to talk through the course or explore whether this course is right for where you are developing, please access the contact form on our website, and receive a calendar booking link to arrange a time and day that works for you.