Support for Autistic Children, Teens, and Adults
Specialist Support for Autistic People and Their Families
We offer evidence-based, neurodiversity-affirming therapy tailored to each person’s strengths, needs, and goals.
Understanding Autism
Autism is a neurological difference that shapes how someone experiences the world, communicates, and processes information. Each autistic person has a unique profile of strengths and challenges. Some might find social interactions exhausting, whilst others might navigate sensory environments differently or have specific ways of thinking and learning that don’t fit typical expectations.
What matters most is understanding that autism is a fundamental part of who someone is. Our approach recognises this, focusing on building skills, confidence, and wellbeing while respecting and nurturing each person’s authentic way of being.
We welcome people with or without a formal diagnosis. Whether you’re seeking support after a recent assessment or you’re exploring your neurodivergent identity, we’re here to help.
Who We Work With
Our autism affirming therapy services support:
Young children (ages 3–7)
Through play-based approaches that honour how young children naturally express themselves and learn about the world.
School-age children and teenagers
Navigating friendships, academic demands, and the challenges that can come with growing up autistic in environments that aren’t always designed with neurodivergent people in mind.
Adults and young adults
Whether you’ve just received a diagnosis, have known for years, or you suspect that you may be autistic, we are here to support adults in building fulfilling lives, managing anxiety, and understanding yourself more deeply.
Families and caregivers
Parents, partners, and family members who want to better understand and support their autistic loved ones, while also looking after their own wellbeing.
We recognise that many autistic people experience co-occurring challenges such as anxiety, ADHD, sensory sensitivities, depression, or learning differences. Our holistic approach addresses these interconnected aspects of your experience.
Our Approach to Autism Affirming Therapy
Neurodiversity-Affirming
We respect and value each person’s unique neurological profile. This means we don’t try to make autistic people seem ‘less autistic’. Instead, we work collaboratively to build on your strengths, develop skills that matter to you, and create strategies that genuinely improve your quality of life.
Your way of communicating, your interests, your need to stim or move your body in particular ways, these aren’t problems to eliminate. When challenges arise, we look at how the environment can adapt and what supports might help, rather than expecting you to mask or suppress your authentic self.
Strength-Based
Every person has inherent strengths. In the case of Autistic individuals, these strengths may not be recognised in traditional settings. We build therapy around what’s already working, using your natural abilities as foundations for growth.
Collaborative
Effective support requires listening. We work alongside you (or your child), incorporating your insights, preferences, and goals into every aspect of therapy.
We’re also happy to collaborate with schools, workplaces, and other professionals when appropriate, helping to integrate support across all areas of your life.
Individualised
There’s no standard therapy protocol for autistic people. Your goals might involve managing overwhelming sensory experiences, building confidence in social situations, developing executive functioning strategies, understanding relationships, or processing difficult emotions. Whatever matters most to you will be the focus of the work you and your therapist do together.
Evidence-Based and Ethical
We can incorporate evidence-based approaches such as CBT adapted for autistic people, social understanding work, parent coaching, and sensory integration strategies. Any approach that our therapists implement is always through a neurodiversity-affirming lens.
Importantly, our therapists do not use compliance-based methods that suppress identity or self-expression. We don’t use approaches that aim to make autistic people indistinguishable from their non-autistic peers through intensive behavioural modification. Our focus is on genuine wellbeing, self-understanding, and skills that serve your needs.
Common Areas We Support
Communication and Interaction
Understanding your own communication preferences and needs is foundational. For those struggling with communication, therapy can help to develop ways for you to express yourself effectively, whether through spoken language, alternative communication methods (like visuals or written words), or a combination.
For non-speaking or minimally speaking clients, autism affirming therapy supports communication systems that will work for the individual, depending on their unique needs and preferences. The goal isn’t necessarily speech, it’s genuine, meaningful communication in whatever form serves you best.
Understanding others’ communication (which can feel like learning a different language) and navigating the unwritten social rules that neurotypical people often take for granted are common topics explored in neurodiversity-affirming therapy.
Emotional Regulation and Anxiety
Many autistic people experience emotions intensely. The world can feel overwhelming, unpredictable, or just exhausting. Therapy is a space where you can explore the early warning signs of overwhelm, develop personalised coping strategies, and identify environments that reduce unnecessary stress.
This work is done without shame. Meltdowns and shutdowns aren’t ‘bad behaviour’, they’re your nervous system’s response to genuine overwhelm. Understanding this is key to an autism affirming therapeutic approach.
For those experiencing anxiety (which is extremely common amongst autistic people), CBT and mindfulness approaches can be useful. All therapists on our team who specialise in Autism will adapt the therapeutic modules that they work with to suit the individual they are supporting.
Sensory Differences
Sensory experiences can significantly impact daily life. Perhaps fluorescent lights cause physical pain, certain sounds feel unbearable, or you seek out specific sensory input to feel regulated. These aren’t preferences you can simply ignore, they’re neurological realities that deserve accommodation.
In therapy, you can work together with your therapist to understand your sensory profile, identify what’s overwhelming and what’s regulating, and develop practical strategies for managing sensory challenges in your home, school, or workplace. This might involve environmental adaptations, sensory tools, or simply permission to meet your sensory needs without apology.
Daily Living and Independence
Executive functioning challenges affect many autistic people, making tasks like planning, organising, initiating activities, or managing time genuinely difficult. This is not because of laziness or lack of trying, but because of how your brain is wired.
We can work to develop personalised systems for daily routines, transitions between activities, and managing the invisible labour of adult life. For younger clients, this includes age-appropriate self-care skills. For adults, it might involve rethinking traditional productivity advice to find approaches that actually work for your brain.
Social Understanding and Relationships
Navigating relationships as an autistic person can have its particular challenges. The social world often runs on unspoken rules, indirect communication, and expectations that may feel baffling or exhausting.
With the support of a qualified therapist, you can explore your experience of social situations without the assumption that the neurotypical way is the ‘right’ way. Instead, autism affirming therapy can offer space to understand others’ perspectives, while recognising that autistic social communication is valid and valuable. Therapy can support you in building friendships with people who appreciate you as you are, setting boundaries, understanding consent, and advocating for your needs.
For those in school or work environments, therapy can also be a place where specific challenges around group work, workplace politics, interviews, or managing sensory and social demands simultaneously can be addressed.
What to Expect from Therapy
Booking an Appointment
You can make a booking to meet with a therapist on our team through the website or by phone. Our team is happy to help you find a therapist that suits your unique needs and your schedule.
Connecting with Your Therapist
Once you have made a booking, your therapist will receive your contact details along with any information that you have chosen to include in your booking summary.
If you have any preferences for how you would like your therapist to contact you, for example, if you prefer emails or texts over phone calls, you can mention this in your message, along with any other information that you would like the therapist to know at this point. Your therapist will reach out before your first appointment.
Many of our Autistic clients find it helpful to receive a video or photo of the therapy room where the first session will take place. Let your therapist know if this, or any other information, would be helpful to you. It is important that you feel as comfortable as possible coming into your first session.
First Sessions
The early sessions focus on understanding. You and your therapist will take time to learn about you (or your child) as a whole person: your strengths, interests, communication preferences, relationships, and current challenges.
For children, this often involves observation during play and natural interactions. For teenagers and adults, it’s usually conversational, though we adapt our approach to whatever feels most comfortable.
You and your therapist will review relevant history, previous assessments (if you have them) and what’s working or not working in daily life. If you’re a parent or carer, your insights are invaluable, though we always centre the autistic person’s own perspective.
Developing a Therapy Plan
Based on what you and your therapist learn together, you can work collaboratively to develop goals and a plan that makes sense for your situation. This may include:
- How often you will meet (typically weekly)
- Setting specific goals
- How progress can be tracked in a way that is meaningful to you
The plan remains flexible. As circumstances change or you make progress, you and your therapist can adapt the approach accordingly.
Ongoing Support and Review
Therapy isn’t a fixed programme that you simply complete. It’s an evolving relationship where we regularly review what’s helping, what needs adjusting, and whether your goals have shifted.
For clients who need it, we can coordinate with schools, workplaces, or other professionals to ensure consistency of support.
Support for Parents and Caregivers
Parenting an autistic child brings with it its own joys and challenges. You might feel overwhelmed by confusing or contradictory advice, exhausted from navigating systems that don’t seem designed for your family, or simply uncertain about the best way to support your child while respecting who they are.
We offer:
Psychoeducation about autism and sensory needs
Understanding your child’s neurology helps everything make more sense. We explain how autistic brains work, what might be happening beneath behaviours that seem puzzling, and why certain approaches help while others backfire.
Practical strategies for communication and daily life
From visual schedules to communication supports to managing transitions, we can provide concrete tools for you to use at home. These strategies respect your child’s autism rather than fighting against it.
Understanding behaviour as communication
When a child melts down, refuses something, or engages in repetitive behaviours, they’re often communicating something important about their internal state or environment. We can help parents, caregivers or loved ones to decode these messages and respond in ways that genuinely support the child.
Support for parental stress and burnout
Caring for an autistic child in a world that often misunderstands them is demanding. You might be dealing with school difficulties, isolation from other parents, financial strain from assessments and supports, or simply exhaustion. Looking after your own wellbeing isn’t selfish, it’s essential. We can provide space for these struggles alongside the practical autism support.
Advocacy guidance
Navigating assessments, securing school accommodations, or accessing services in Ireland can feel like fighting an uphill battle. While we’re not legal advocates, we can help you to understand your child’s needs, prepare for meetings, and communicate effectively with professionals.
Our Team
Autism affirming therapists at Mind and Body Works bring both professional expertise and genuine respect for neurodivergent people, and have:
- Relevant qualifications in psychology, psychotherapy, or counselling
- Professional registration with appropriate Irish regulatory associations
- Specific training and ongoing professional development in autism and neurodiversity
- Experience working with autistic clients across various support needs
More than credentials, though, our team approaches this work with warmth, patience, and understanding.
What our therapists say about their autism affirming approach to therapy:
“I work from a trauma informed approach and adapt for sensory sensitivities and communication differences. This approach is tailored to the needs of the client and is person centred with a focus on strengths and validation.”
- Dublin-based therapist specialising in supporting autistic clients and/or clients who have experienced trauma
For parents and carers, we recognise the emotional journey you’re on and meet you with both professionalism and compassion.
“Autistic clients have been really traumatised in relationships, because they have misunderstood people, or been misunderstood. Autistic communication is characterised by openness and transparency, and I believe autistic clients thrive and grow in therapy when the therapist is open and transparent”
- Dublin-based therapist specialising in autism affirming therapy
Practical Information
Location and Format
In-person sessions
Available at our Dublin and Galway locations. Our centres have quiet, low-stimulus environments with consideration for sensory sensitivities.
Online therapy
For many autistic people, online sessions are preferred, as they reduce travel-related stress, eliminate sensory challenges of unfamiliar environments, and provide the comfort of being in your own space. We offer secure video sessions anywhere in Ireland.
Accessibility
- Quiet waiting areas
- Sensory-friendly spaces (we can adjust lighting, reduce background noise, and accommodate movement needs during sessions)
- Flexible with communication preferences (email rather than phone calls, written summaries, whatever helps)
- Public transport links near all of our centres
- Paid parking is available close to all our centres
- The rooms in our therapy centres are equipped with the same furnishings. If there is a room change, or a session takes place on a different day, the furnishings will be familiar.
Fees and Funding
Individual session costs vary depending on the therapist you choose to work with. Every therapist has their own fee listed on their profiles on our website.
Insurance
Some private health insurance policies cover psychological or counselling services. Your therapist can provide receipts for you to submit claims.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an official diagnosis to access therapy?
No. Therapists at Mind and Body Works work with people who have a formal autism diagnosis, those currently going through the assessment process, and those who recognise themselves as autistic but haven’t pursued formal diagnosis.
Do you work with non-speaking autistic people?
Yes. We have experience supporting non-speaking and minimally speaking clients using various communication methods. Therapists adapt their approach to the needs of each unique individual.
Can you liaise with my child’s school?
With your permission, absolutely. Depending on the circumstances, your therapist may be able to offer communication support with teachers and special education staff, to provide recommendations, or help develop support plans. Many families find this coordination invaluable.
How involved are parents during therapy?
This depends on your child’s age and preferences. For younger children, parents are usually closely involved, often meeting with the therapist for an initial session before the child attends therapy, receiving regular updates and home strategies. For teenagers and adults, family involvement is balanced with the individual’s autonomy and privacy wishes.
What if my child doesn’t want to engage at first?
This is perfectly normal. Building trust takes time, especially if previous experiences have been difficult. Your therapist will go at your child’s pace, meeting them where they are. Sometimes early sessions look more like parallel play rather than traditional therapy, and that’s fine. Connection comes before everything else.
Do you work with adults who were diagnosed later in life?
Yes. Many people discover they’re autistic in adulthood, which brings both relief (finally understanding yourself) and challenges (processing all those years of masking and confusion). Many therapists with Mind and Body Works are experienced in working with autistic clients who have experienced a late diagnosis.
What about autistic people with high support needs?
Our therapists work with people across all support levels. The approaches we use are adapted to each person’s communication style, processing differences, and specific needs.
You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone
Whether you’re a parent watching your child struggle in environments that don’t understand them, an adult finally making sense of a lifetime of feeling different, or a teenager trying to navigate a world that expects you to be someone you’re not, autism affirming therapy meets you where you are.
We can support you in understanding yourself more deeply, developing strategies that genuinely help, reducing unnecessary struggle, and building a life that feels authentic rather than exhausting.
Contact Us
Phone: 01 677 1021
Email: enquiries@mindandbodyworks.com
If you’re not sure whether autism therapy is what you need, feel free to get in touch. Our admin team can speak with you about the kind of support you are looking for and what may be most suitable for you.
Our practice serves Dublin, Galway, and clients throughout Ireland via online sessions. All services are provided by registered, experienced professionals who genuinely understand and respect neurodivergent people.
