Welcome to Autism Wellbeing’s first blog. We have been working alongside autistic people and their families - and the professionals involved in their support for over 3 years now. But as individuals in our tiny organisation based over here in beautiful West Wales, we have decades of professional experience in psychology, speech and language therapy, teaching, social care, advocacy, and therapeutic massage.
We hope you are enjoying our website and do keep visiting us because we have an exciting new members area coming soon. It’s cheaper than chips!!!
That’s right –our members will be able to access exclusive resources, free training courses including our popular Making Sense of Autism | Autism Wellbeing, discounts on other courses and services, and access to an exciting new top secret project we have planned. More details to follow soon!
When you contact Autism Wellbeing, you are most likely to speak to Rorie on the telephone, or Emma online. Our phone based support service is free and can be booked via the contact box on our website.
Here are a few comments from callers:
“Over the years I must have called the line 5-10 times, and each time I am supported by patient and kind listening, followed by bespoke guidance and support. I really feel my experience and that of my autistic child is validated – it is important and valuable; explanations are clear – no point is too subtle or difficult to be explored.”
“I love the range of what can be covered in our discussions - how AW are happy to explore all aspects of autistic experience with the caller – from relationships, school, physical challenges and how they are able to explain what’s happening in the brain with technical understanding – its brilliant….And it works.”
On social media, Emma moderates and produces content for our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages. Autism Wellbeing also has online peer support groups set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have a parents and carers’ group and an autistic adults’ group – many members belong to both. If you are interacting with us online, whether that’s liking and sharing our most recent Facebook post or retweeting some of our top tips, it is likely to be Emma behind the keyboard.
Autism Wellbeing is a CIC (community interest company). This means we are run as a non-profit making organisation. We rely upon grants for specific projects like our fantastic animations, films, and information sheets about Supporting Children With Additional Learning Needs | Autism Wellbeing that was funded by the Brechfa Windfarm Community Fund – and we are always grateful when we receive financial donations to support unfunded projects like the phone based support and online peer support groups. If you feel able to support us financially, please get in touch with Rorie or visit Autism Wellbeing CIC (goldengiving.com)
We are passionate about what we do and we’ve created a vision statement about this:
Autism Wellbeing is a small team of professionals who find strength in our neurodiversity. Between us you could use the labels; autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia, adhd, and neurotypical to describe our various neurologies - but we are so much more than that.
We have professional experience in speech and language therapy, teaching, psychology, mental health advocacy, and social care. Plus, we have our individual physical and psychological characteristics and life experiences, as well as those experiences of our families and friends.
We are united by our passion for reframing how autism is perceived and our desire to find ways for autistic and non-autistic people to collaborate equitably and successfully.
We achieve this by working collaboratively with each other and our partners: the Autistic people and their families, carers and the professionals that support them, by valuing each person's lived experience and way of being in the world.
Our aim is to be part of the change we wish to see in the way that autism is perceived. We challenge the language, terminology and frames used to traditionally describe autism and enable the testimonies of Autistic people to be at the forefront of how they are represented.
We have more blogs planned where you can meet the rest of the team, including Kate – our speech and language therapist, who creates all our original artwork; and our other team members too. If you can’t wait, then find out more about us here: About | Autism Wellbeing
We have been reflecting on the past year where we spent part of the summer sharing our work on Sensory Trauma; including at the Autscape conference, which is a conference and retreat specifically by and for autistic people, centred around autistic people’s needs, interests and sensitivities. As a team of autistic and non-autistic people we were delighted to be invited to present our research, and to demonstrate how we have found strength in our neurodiversity and in our collaborative way of working, whereby each of us works to their strengths. To learn more about Sensory Trauma follow this link Sensory Trauma | Autism Wellbeing
Rorie, Emma, Kate, Rachel and Clare would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year.