Welcome to the Asperger’s & Autism Clinic

Our team at Questa Psychological Services are fully qualified to assess and diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorder. Additionally, regardless of whether or not a diagnosis is given, we offer psychological therapy for individuals and families affected by these conditions.

We are able to provide a high quality assessment, counselling and therapy services for people diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families, to aid in making day to day living easier. We work in a collaborative manner, working with the client and their family to gain a full understanding of the difficulties being experienced and determine the most effective way forward. We believe that by giving our clients choice about the treatment that they receive we can empower them and give them confidence. Our approach is therefore always flexible and geared to suit the needs of the client.


Who We Can Help

Autism spectrum disorder is characterised by difficulties in:
  • Social Communication - such as using and understanding verbal and non-verbal language like gesture and tone of voice.
  • Social Interaction - such as recognising and understanding the feelings and intention of others.
  • Restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour, activities or interests.
Other signs of ASD include:
  • Problems with sensory information, such as being highly sensitive to touch or smell.
  • The need for routine and sameness to a degree that impacts on day to day life
  • Friendship difficulties and Social isolation from peers

Autism in girls and women

More boys and men are diagnosed with autism than girls and women. This may be because the observable characteristics of autism in females does not fit with the profile typically associated with males, on which current assessment tools and diagnostic criteria are based. This leads to under diagnosis in girls and women. In accordance with identified good practice, our team are able to modify the assessment and diagnostic tests for girls and women, to ensure that the different, gender-based presentations of autism are taken into account.


How Can We Help?

We are able to offer an assessment and diagnosis service for Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs)/Asperger’s syndrome. These assessments can help you to better understand your own strengths and difficulties. It may be beneficial for you to spend some time before your assessment considering how you would like your life to be different or what you would like to be doing which you currently aren’t, e.g. making friends, having a more varied job or living more independently. These goals or aims can help inform how we consider making recommendations or supporting you following the assessment. We use formal assessment measures as recommended by The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE).

There are 5 stages to the assessment process:

  1. Initial telephone conversation following an enquiry. This gives you a chance to speak to a psychologist and ask any questions that you may have. If you choose to book an appointment for an initial screening session following this conversation you will be sent a few questionnaires to complete. These will then need to be brought to the initial assessment or emailed beforehand.
  2. Initial screening session. This session will last for around 90 minutes and will include a clinical interview and discussion of the completed questionnaires. At the end of this session the psychologist will be able to tell you whether a full assessment is necessary based upon your questionnaires and their clinical expertise. You can then decide whether, if clinically necessary, you wish to embark on the formal assessment process.
  3. Formal Assessment for Autism Spectrum Conditions. A formal assessment will involve the completion of further psychometric measures and clinical observations. This usually takes two further 90 minute sessions. It will also be possible to discuss any further assessments if clinically required, for example, a cognitive assessment, ADHD or a differential diagnosis which may incur an additional cost.
  4. All of the measures will then be scored and interpreted. A report will be written detailing the results and whether or not you meet criteria for a diagnosis of ASD. Recommendations about the next steps will be made. This involves considerable work 'behind the scenes' and is reflected in the costing of the assessment package.
  5. Diagnostic Outcome session. This session is designed to share the outcome of diagnosis (whether or not you meet criteria for an ASC), go through the results of the assessment process as detailed in the report. Recommendations will be discussed and any changes to the report can be made. This report is then sent to you, the client. Further help and support that we are able to provide or help that can be provided by other services can also be discussed.

FAQ

Q: Will my child's school or college accept the outcome of an assessment conducted in the private sector?

A: Many parents and carers may worry or may have heard that the assessment findings will not be accepted by their child's school or college because the assessment has not been conducted by clinicians working in the NHS. The issue is not whether your child has been assessed within the NHS or the private sector, but whether the assessment has been carried out by suitably trained, qualified and experienced clinicians. All of the clinicians on our multi-disciplinary team are fully trained and highly experienced in the assessment and diagnosis of autism. The clinical leads for our autism pathway also work in autism assessment in the NHS. Schools and colleges will therefore be able to accept the findings as reliable and valid.


Who We Are

The team are highly qualified and experienced psychologists with experience of assessing and diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder. They are trained to doctoral level and have many years’ experience working as psychologists in the NHS as well as privately.


Talk To Us

How do I make an appointment?

The first step is to fill in the form below. We always try to respond to contact form messages within the day.

Our helpful and friendly practice administration staff will ask you some initial questions about what you would like help with and which location or locations you could come to. They will also talk with you about which of our psychologists will be most appropriate and their availability.

Once you have decided who you’d like to see we will arrange a suitable time for you to talk to each other. Ideally this will be within a day or two. This is a great opportunity to ask any questions or address concerns that you may have before making an appointment.

We know that it is not always easy to get to the point of making the decision to contact someone for help. Our referrals team are there to help you through the process of finding the right person to speak to.

You will be asked for some personal details during this process. All information shared with us will always be treated in the strictest confidence. Needless to say, all our people are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under the Data Protection Act (1998).

Contact Us

Please fill in all the fields below. It may seem like we're asking for a lot of information but we will call you back to help decide the best course of actions.