Post Diagnostic Support for Young Autistic People & their Families
Who is this for?
This is for young people and their families, who want to understand more about themselves, about being autistic, and about their strengths and areas of difference.
What does Post Diagnostic Support involve?
It is a series of at least 4 one-hour sessions that focus on the following:
• Answering all questions that the young person and family have about autism.
• To help understand situations in the present and past that are difficult and might result in conflict.
• To learn about differences in processing information to avoid misinterpreting each other and to reduce misunderstandings.
• Diagnosis can feel very generic, and it can be difficult to find yourself in information given during the assessment process. In our sessions, I aim to help young people, and their families, to learn about themselves, to recognise their strengths and increase their self-esteem.
• To identify areas that young people feel need more support and to discuss what this can look like and how it can be implemented.
• To help young people and their family to understand each other so that it is easier to communicate and support each other.
Can we extend sessions if we want to have more?
Yes, you can. Some people feel that 4 is enough, but if families want more sessions, I can offer more. I am a cognitive behaviour therapist, specialising in adapting therapy for autistic young people, and I offer this to young people and their families, too.
How long are the sessions?
The sessions are one hour long. I have a lovely clinic room in central London, that is comfortable and very relaxed. I have sensory resources for young people who find these helpful, e.g., putting, fiddle toys, squeezy, squishy balls.
Do we have to do homework?
No, unless you really want to! BUT I write up a summary of what we discussed in the session so that you have a record of this that you can go over to help remember what we said and did.
Families find this very helpful. Young people sometimes read these too, and if there is too much language in the summary for them, I can re-write it with fewer words.
How do I arrange to have Post Diagnostic Support with you and what are your fees?
Fees are available upon request. You can email me at lucysanctuary@protonmail, or via the contact form on my website.
Parent feedback
Lucy has helped us understand better how our son’s mind might work differently, how hard certain things are for him and how to better cope with these differences and help support him as much as we can. Even more importantly, she has helped him immensely and given him the coping strategies to better handle his day-to-day life. He is a much happier child and thanks to Lucy, he has received so much help at school because she is always there to support and give guidance to the teachers when issues do arise.
Parent feedback
Lucy is our beam of hope and our biggest help and support. Being a therapist is not just a job for her, but a calling and a passion to help support neurodiverse individuals and give them a much better quality of life. But also to make the world a more inclusive and better place where people are accepting of differences. Lucy is a real gem and we are so lucky to have her in our life.
Parent feedback therapy
The day we were introduced to Lucy was the day things started to change radically for our family. Lucy got it, she immediately understood what our needs where and hatched a plan with us for therapy that worked with us. Our son had reservations about starting therapy but by 5 minutes into our first session I knew we had found our person. Our son interacted with Lucy in such a positive way and she got him, she knew exactly what to do to get the best out of him and put him at ease. She did the same for us and admittedly I was nervous about us in a group session every week bearing out good days / bad days and everything that goes with it. What Lucy also managed to do is come up with strategies that work specifically for us as a family – nothing was one size fits all. And she empowered our son (as well as us) to embrace our situation. I looked forward to each week and miss not going. I really don’t think I’ve met anyone who genuinely cared as much for my son and our family and our wellbeing; while navigating the incredibly interesting, sometimes challenging but mostly rewarding world of neurodivergence in your family. Lucy really is a tremendously talented but also genuine human. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to work with her and for our family to have benefitted from what she gave, and continues to give us (she checks in regularly). Thank you Lucy.
Parent of a child having therapy with Lucy
Your approach of total support and kindness really sits well with my son. Thank you.
Parent of a young person that had therapy with Lucy
If I am honest, I am not sure we could have done it without your support and guidance, I hold what you did with her in the highest of regards and I think it actually saved her life. She was in a dark place and the sessions and understanding gave her guidance and something to work towards.
