I just wanted to put my thoughts on paper, even though being a neurodiverse lone parent of two diverse young adults, means between life and my over active chaotic inflexible brain, it is a real challenge for me. Far harder than hyper-focusing on my specialist areas of interest. However, driven by the hope that reading this may give other diverse individuals hope and strength to keep bouncing back from the challenges they have daily living as neurodiverse in a neurotypical world, this will hopefully provide concrete evidence that will enable them to realise trust and believe there are organisations and individuals who don’t claim to understand you better than you get yourself. Instead, AS Mentoring has listened, enabled us, offered consistent honest support and advice as well as providing tools and given clear feedback, structure and boundaries.

My son has now had two AS Mentors, Charlotte and Alan. Both have been excellent in different ways but equally amazing. Without their input we wouldn’t have achieved what we all have as individuals and as a family. My son who has after several years of trying, under mountable challenges, has managed to go to university away from home. This was his dream. With Charlotte and Alan’s support he has just successfully completed his first year, and not without hitches and enormous challenges along the way. I believe we may not have got there, despite our best efforts, without AS Mentoring’s continual input throughout the journey.

Charlotte and Alan understand the challenges within our house and without the continued level of support we receive from them we will not be able to sustain our son at uni as well as in his apprenticeship and my self working. Of course it’s not without challenges and being high functioning definitely doesn’t make us less disabled or only ''mildly'' autistic/ADHD. I truly believe it is AS Mentoring that has made it all possible. 

They are non judgmental and do not drop you like other services. They even helped us challenge the continuation of need for further input from our local authority. They keep us buoyant as a family and will enable my son to complete university and us all to have the best opportunity to achieve our goals. The support received has empowered us, allowing us to feel valuable and not” special “ BUT truly extraordinary. I believe being neurodiverse can mean being truly extraordinary if supported properly and given strategies to manage oneself and navigate the confusing neurotypical world we are expected to live, work and cope with daily.

After years of using other services unsuccessfully we’d kind of given up hope. We only tried AS  Mentoring in the absence of anything else but thank goodness we did! A massive thank you to an awesome organisation.

Anna taught me how to tell clients about my Asperger’s and how to ask for adjustments. She used her vast professional experience to describe how firms are run, how to unearth hidden workplace rules and how to apply such rules wisely. Anna’s unwavering encouragement has helped me to become more confident being who I am.

A couple of years ago, I was facing challenges both in my personal and work life. This, left me feeling lost and trapped which impacted my ability to function on a day–to–day basis. I felt there was limited awareness by management around how the challenges were impacting me. Due to the sensitivity of the situation, two professionals in the Autism field recommended that I reached out to David as he has a reputation for resolving workplace matters in a very positive manner. I cannot agree more with the recommendation.

Before I started working with Laura I was continuously seeking answers to my problems, including depression and anxiety. I especially wanted to understand why I found socialising so difficult. I wanted to fix myself: to become a less flawed version of myself. The thought that I was in some way defective kept returning. Having worked with Laura for a year I have come a long way in accepting my autistic self, which has been the key to knowing myself as a whole person. I am now enjoying a stage of self discovery. There were no flaws within me that required a solution: I needed someone to help me find myself.