Service categories: Counselling and therapies, Diagnosticians, Information, advice and advocacy

Service URL: http://www.avenuetherapies.com

We are a team of qualified therapists (including Clinical, Counselling and Health psychologists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists) experienced in working with children, young people, adult and family services within the NHS and Social Services. We are passionate about helping people of all ages and their families in understanding whether a diagnosis of Autism (&/or ADHD) might explain your (or a loved one's) experiences and to use this information to guide future support and/or intervention. Our team is headed up by one of our directors, Dr Nicole Stokoe and detailed profiles for all the team can be found here. 

We offer Autism (and ADHD) assessment services both virtually and face to face in London, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Hampshire. What we offer: We offer assessments to children, young people and adults from the ages of 4 years and above who are suspected of having Autism (ASD) ASD (see below for some of the indicators). Our assessments involve several different stages, which help us understand whether a person meets the diagnosis of Autism. 

These include direct clinical assessment and indirect information gathering and analysis:  

Initial Contact: One of our team will take some basic information from you and send you our information sheet that outlines the phases of the assessment and the pricing structure. If you would like to make a time to speak with one our assessors about the assessment process in more detail, this can be arranged for you.

Initial Assessment: We will discuss your reasons for considering an Autism assessment and ask for some further information about your early development and experiences through education and into adulthood (where applicable). The assessor will also screen for other neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. Where possible, it is helpful for us to speak to a family member or someone who knew you from birth, to obtain an objective overview of your developmental history. With child and young person assessments, we will be working closely with the core family members as part of the assessment process.

Based on the outcome of this initial assessment, we will discuss with you whether the full structured Autism diagnostic assessment is indicated. If you decide to go ahead, we will gather more comprehensive information from relevant sources e.g. from your education institution, GP. We will also arrange a time for you to come in for the formal structured interview process, which will involve an assessment tool called the ADOS-2. We will explain more about this to you if we all agree to go ahead with this stage of the assessment. Once both the direct and indirect assessment processes have been completed, we will arrange a final appointment to feedback the results. Recommendations to support you in moving forward will be discussed. We will finalise the report with you and then send you a final version of the assessment results and recommendations.

Aimed at: Adolescent , Adult , Adult sibling, Anyone with an Association to Autism, Businesses, Child , Child/adolescent sibling, Children under the age of 12 years, children with complex needs and their parents or carers, Parent or carer of under 18, Parent/carer of a child, Parent/carer of a young person, Parent/carer of an adult, Parents or carers, families, adults, Partner, Professional, School, Students, Young person

Referral Sources: Education, NHS and Private, NHS Consultant, NHS primary care, Social Care, Yourself

Specialisms: Autism, Autism and Neurodivergent , Challenging behaviour, Has autism-specific elements, Has autism-specific elements

Other specialisms: Therapeutic models - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).