Professionals

Mental Health, Human Services, and Health Care Professionals

Many professionals contact AANE when they are working with a client or patient on the autism spectrum. They often wonder why their typical approaches, that work so well with others, aren’t effective with individuals with Asperger profiles. AANE can provide you with the information, support and resources you need to meet the needs of your clients and patients.

Every year hundreds of individuals with Asperger profiles, their families and other professionals contact AANE for referrals. If you would like to be included in our professional referral database, please complete the application form.

**AANE provides continuing education and professional development credits for social workers, educators, licensed mental health clinicians, psychologists, and physicians at specified conferences, trainings, and other programs. See program descriptions for details.**

Essential Resources
Information and Education:

Anxiety and Depression in Children and Teens
Behavior in Children and Teens
Adult Mental Health
Conferences, Webinars, and Workshops

Select AANE Services:

Training and Consultation for Professionals
The Peter M. Friedman Neurodiverse Couples Institute: Training & Resources for Couples Therapists and Couples
Asperger/Autism Professional Association

Speakers Bureau: Individuals on the spectrum presenting on different aspects of the Asperger/autism experience.

For everything AANE has to offer professionals, visit our main professionals page.

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Autism and Suicide

05/04/2023
Warning: This article discusses the topic of suicide and the experience of being a suicide loss survivor.   Suicide is one of the top three causes of death for Autistic people without intellectual disabilities (Kirby et al., 2019). While the risk factors of the general public pertain to... more

Finding Connection, Companionship, and CommunityLessons from Simpatico- AANE’s New Pilot Mentorship Program

03/07/2023
Compatibility and shared interests are the roots of a relationship that can evolve into friendship. While friendship often arises organically, finding and maintaining friendships can be a confusing and painful process for some autistic individuals due to communication differences and social anxiety... more

Fostering Interdependence: A Roadmap for Professionals

02/07/2023
Building an independent life is a self-defined and self-determined process. Independence looks different for everyone and will be informed by each individual’s lived experiences, neurotype, culture, age, sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity. There is no universal definition of independence, but... more

Five Principles for Supporting Aging Autistic Adults

01/05/2023
Aging inevitably presents a number of anticipated and unexpected changes in a person’s life. There can be more time and freedom to engage in activities of choice, but it can also be a time when individuals need more specialized support in areas like health care, transportation, and social... more

Autistic Physician Re-Imagines Healthcare for Autistic People

10/04/2022
My Path to Self-Discovery As a brand new mama who also happened to be a physician who takes care of babies, I thought I knew what I was doing. My baby had other ideas. She made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that everything I’d learned in medical school was painfully inadequate for taking care... more

Discovering a Community of Autistic Therapists

10/04/2022
I’ve always enjoyed being a social worker. During the past 40 years, I’ve worked in a variety of settings. I started off with a focus on addictions and families. I worked in treatment centers and hospitals in my early years. Over time, I started my own private practice. I became very drawn to... more

Trust the Client

06/09/2022
The question often arises, how to best support transgender people? How to best support autistic people? People with ADHD? People who are otherwise neurodivergent? To answer this question, I draw from my experiences in these communities and from my education as a therapist. When I was working on the... more

Gender Identity and Autism: Strategies for Supporting Autistic Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Individuals

06/09/2022
The higher likelihood of being transgender, nonbinary, or gender diverse among autistic individuals (and vice versa) has been a growing area of study in recent years (see Sala et al., 2020; Warrier et al., 2020), which has prompted much needed discussions about how professionals can better serve... more

Shifting the Paradigm: Recognizing the Needs of Disabled Parents as Advocates

04/05/2022
I am a formally diagnosed autistic woman and the parent of an autistic adult who I parented through early intervention, public school, post-secondary experiences and now, into adulthood as I support him navigating through rehabilitation services. I am a social worker and researcher, but when it... more

A Different Kind of Grief

01/06/2021
Lee el mensaje de Dania en Español I want to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I’m sure we all share a fervent wish this year will be easier than the last, and we can begin to heal from the difficulty, trauma, and loss we have experienced at the hands of this pandemic. As AANE... more

Professional Development: Learning from First-Person Perspectives

01/06/2021
Making the decision to enter into the healthcare, mental health or education field is often sparked by a personal experience. Whether your own experience, or the experience of a loved one, healthcare professionals, educators, and mental health providers can often cite one or many personal reasons... more

Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorders Symptom Evaluation and Medication Treatment

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Perspectives on Adult Life: An Adult Panel Discusses Living with AS/ASD (Part 1 of 4)

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Anxiety Management Techniques

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AANE LifeMAP Coaches on Coaching

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AANE LifeMAP coaches talk about why and how they coach their Aspergers clients. For Mental Health and Health Care... more