Autism diagnosis

Our previous experiences with autistic people and working with expert clinicians have led us to be passionate about assessments with the following characteristics:

  1. The person’s experience must be the most important factor in the assessment.
  2. Assessments must clearly show the person why a decision is made.
  3. Assessments must be clinically valid so the rationale to a diagnosis is easily understood.
  4. The assessment should look at other factors including a person’s situation, potential mental health difficulties and other neurodivergent conditions
  5. The primary purpose of assessment is to validate and explain.

    The Autism Act in 2009 brought in the ability for adults without intellectual disabilities to gain an NHS assessment. Our diagnosticians were all working with autistic people before that development. We all started working within the NHS on diagnosis as local services were set up and helped develop those services. At one point our diagnosticians were the NHS adult diagnosticians (outside of learning disability services) for three counties and a city! 

    We have done thousands of assessments so you can be confident in our expertise.

The benefits of receiving an autism diagnosis

The main benefit of a clinical diagnosis is better self-understanding. We believe that a diagnosis moves people from 'a failed neurotypical' to a person with neurological differences. Other advantages include protection under various pieces of legislation (ie Equality Act, Autism Act) should you choose to disclose your diagnosis.


Working full-time in assessments for over 15 years, our diagnosticians have been seeking to overcome the following problems:

  1. The deficit based diagnostic criteria.
  2. The individual nature of people and the varied nature of autistic people.
  3. The male dominance of historical thinking about autism.
  4. The historical misdiagnoses of autistic people with other conditions such as personality disorders.
  5. Many adults simply do not have access to a clear detailed description of themselves as a young child.


Why should you undergo assessment?

There are both advantages and disadvantages to being formally assessed for neurodivergent conditions. Advantages include being validated and having your differences acknowledged, being able to seek out the right support and begin to understand who you are and to know your “tribe”. Disadvantages include being labelled and experiencing stigma and having one’s entire life reduced to a diagnostic label.

We understand that no one should be boxed up into a diagnostic label. We believe that knowledge is power: knowing who you are and why your life has run a certain course as well as developing an appreciation for your strength is vital to good mental health:  

We know that Autism is highly individual and can change over time. The Autism Spectrum is not linear, its more multi-dimensional and multi-directional. Terms like “high functioning” or “low functioning” are harmful and outdated.

When you are being assessed we will try to describe your differences in a neuro-affirmative way to help you understand who you are. Whilst we have to assess against diagnostic criteria, we will try to make an assessment a positive experience. We want to help you understand who you are and learn to be proud of yourself, your strengths and the ways in which you have overcome challenges.

“Thanks for your support this year, you have provided me with a solid platform which I can build on."

A recent comment from one of our clients

What our students say about us  

Getting my Autism diagnosis has made more of a difference to my life than I could have ever imagined. I am more comfortable with who I am as a person than I have ever been before.
Once you confirmed that I am autistic, you gave me permission to be myself.
I have gone from being a confused teenager who didn’t understand why she was different to confidently sharing about my experience of being autistic and using that to champion the voices of other autistic people.
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