The Adult Autism Assessment Handbook: A Neurodiversity Affirmative Approach

I am a mental health therapist who specializes working with trauma and neurodivergence. This handbook has absolutely blown me away with how to identify and assess signs of autism in adults while decoding similarities of co-occurring mental health diagnoses. The professionals that collaboratively wrote this book are both neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals, which I think is incredibly important to note as we continue to expand our knowledge of ASD and how it presents in women and adults.The authors prioritize acknowledgement of their own privilege throughout the book while providing the perfect balance of providing objective information (research supported) and subjective information based on their own clinical experiences working with and assessing autistic adults.If you are a medical or mental health professional looking to gain more knowledge on autism in adults, this book is a phenomenal first place to start. A MUST have for your office bookshelf.

I love this book. It's neurodiversity affirming and explains it very clearly. Great for professionals and also autistic people. Would recommend for any therapist to read, regardless of whether they are carrying out autism assessments or not.

Comprehensive, detailed and extraordinarily well-structured overview on the topic. Easy to read. Well explained how to apply the current generally shared understanding of ASD in practice. Implementable recommendations for all relevant steps of an assessment and useful checklists to ensure a high level of minimum quality are both included in this book.The paper has a pleasant touch and hardly reflects any light, the font and its size are optimal, pages turn softly with no cutting or scratching noise.The only negative aspects to be mentioned are certain unnecessary off-topic/ideological comments with no added value for neither clinicians nor other readers, such as e.g. a frontal attack on capitalism or general attempts to spread a ‘woke’ worldview.

I really appreciate the guidance in this book!

The Adult Autism Practice and Thriving Autism are two Irish companies changing the narrative of autism assessments.This book combines theories around autism, develops a positive understanding of autism presentations and how to assess through a neuro-affirming lens.The content is quite remarkable, explained in language that is easy to understand for a non-professional. It is warm, engaging, informative and above all, positive. It shows autism as a difference, not a disorder and everyone involved in autism assessments should be using this as a guide for best practice.A must buy.