TLDR: We take the time to learn and engage with our children/teen clients by learning all about their special interests and hobbies.
We also offer a non-judgemental, neuro-affirming (but also realistic) approach to supporting you with family life.
At Perspective, we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt our coaching services to people of all ages and life experiences.
Working with autistic children provides a great opportunity to help our young autistic community understand their brains at this crucial stage of development, with the aim that understanding their own perspective on the world, the difficulties they might encounter (and the reasons why) and what they may need in order to regulate their mind and body, will create a strong foundation on which to build their life.
We aim to provide the children we work with an understanding of their;
This approach can work well to support your child with their understanding of themselves and often works best when coupled with parent coaching sessions to help identify adjustments and accommodations that may help.
When you are a neurodivergent individual of any age and any neurology, we believe it is imperative to understand your sensory system.
There is very little and often no support provided on understanding your sensory system and how it can impact both your regulation and dysregulation at all times.
As part of our coaching for all clients, we discuss the way that person experiences their 5 functional senses of:
Then discuss what adjustments to their sensory environment they could implement to support their sensory experience. We also explore the importance of the 3 extra senses (PROPRIOCEPTION, VESTIBULAR and INTEROCEPTIVE) we need to identify and consider when we are neurodivergent. Understanding these senses allows us to increase sensory strategies to aide regulation.
While many children are comfortable talking 1:1 (or with a parent present – we have no issue with this) during sessions, others may find engaging with their coach over zoom difficult and the common experience of ‘feeling attention’ drawn onto them can present a challenge. In this instance we use can use special interests, gaming and art to facilitate the coaching process. We also make ensure we know the interests and hobbies of any child we work with, in order to build rapport during sessions, which can be crucial to the coaching process.
This approach draws attention away from the demand or expectation and so therefor anxiety of having to answer questions in the traditional talking therapy format.
Parenting a neurodivergent child can bring unique challenges that can make life with a family more complex. Often there is little support and understanding of the true presentation of how your child’s autism affects their daily life, and as a result, parents can find themselves struggling not only to understand their child’s experience or how best to support them but also in endless paperwork loops, education reviews and school meetings just to try get their child’s needs met, with professionals who also don’t have full understanding of your child’s experience.
Coaching with parents of autistic or ADHD children allows parents the opportunity to learn about the root of the behaviours/ experiences of their children and understand how their own emotions, behaviours and decisions impact their child’s nervous system. Every child, every parent and every family are unique in their experiences. We are here to support you as a parent make the right choice for you and the ones you love.
So often information and support provided to parents of our young neurodivergent community, is based on the presentation of traits that are outlined in diagnostic criteria, informed by behavioural ‘therapy’ principles (i.e. social skills training, behaviour management charts, emotional regulation ‘therapy’, Applied behaviour analysis principles, exposure or most commonly – PARENTING INTERVENTION).
At Perspective we don’t believe in using these behavioural tools. We believe these are at best unhelpful and at worst traumatic for our children.
Sessions can be conducted either together with your child, separate as a parent session or a mixture of these two options. We can be as flexible as we need to be. It is often the case when discussing strategies to support regulation, increase/decrease sensory information, or to make adjustments to daily routines in order to reduce overwhelm and dysregulation, that parent sessions work better as any accommodations and adjustments can be made gradually and gently without sparking anxiety and resulting opposition from the child.
We also support you in advocating for your child’s needs in education and can work closely with teachers and special educational needs co-ordinators to make accommodations and adjustments for your child.
"Lisa has been instrumental in helping us to better understand our daughter, who she supported through a diagnosis with ADHD and Autism, and adjust our parenting style to suit her needs. We have learned so much from working with her and our family wouldn't be where we are today without her services."
© 2023 Perspective Coaching Created by Digital Hero Co
