Supporting Autistic People Part 2 | The Autistic Experience

This webinar is the second in NeuroHub Community's professional training series on supporting Autistic people. Where Part One introduced the Six-Point Framework and the ecosystemic model as a whole, Part Two takes Point One of that framework, Autistic Experience, and explores it in the depth it deserves.

Autistic experience is not a single concept. It is a layered, interconnected set of realities that shape how an Autistic person moves through every environment, relationship, and system they encounter. This session works through seven of those realities in turn, building a picture of Autistic experience that is grounded in current research, community knowledge, and direct practice relevance.

The session covers spiky profiles and what they mean for how we understand ability and support; monotropism as a theory of Autistic cognition, attention, and the real cost of transitions; the double empathy problem and the research that has substantially reframed how we understand Autistic communication; energy accounting and the hidden resource demands of navigating a neurotypical world; minority stress as a model for understanding the elevated rates of mental health difficulties in Autistic populations; the significantly elevated vulnerability of Autistic people to violence, abuse, and exploitation, including mate crime; and the landscape of co-occurring conditions, from ADHD and anxiety to hypermobility and PDA.

Across all seven areas, the emphasis is the same: difficulty in Autistic lives is not produced by Autism itself. It is produced by the interaction between Autistic neurology and environments, systems, and social structures that have not been designed with Autistic people in mind. Understanding that distinction is not a philosophical nicety, it is the difference between support that helps and support that compounds the problem.

This webinar is suitable for any professional who works with or alongside Autistic people, including social workers, educators, healthcare practitioners, therapists, support workers, and those in management or policy roles. No prior knowledge of the Six-Point Framework is required, though attending Part One first is recommended. Those who purchase a ticket to this event can get free access to part one and the PDF handbook by emailing david@neurohubcommunity.org with proof of purchase.

Delivered by David Gray-Hammond, founder of NeuroHub Community Ltd, researcher, author, and multiply neurodivergent practitioner.