LifeMAP Coaching Program

AANE works with individuals, families, and professionals to help people with Asperger profiles build meaningful, connected lives. With such diversity in the community and a range of individual needs, finding the perfect support can be difficult. That is why AANE has divided LifeMAP into a number of different individualized coaching programs, designed exclusively to match you and your needs.

NEW! LifeMAP Online Video Coaching

LifeMAP Online Video Coaching provides our LifeMAP coaching assistance to clients at any location with the ease and convenience of internet-based video conferencing.  We use any of the popular platforms including Skype, FaceTime®, Google Hangouts™, according to the preferences of the client. Any of the LifeMAP programs are available with Online Video Coaching.

Which LifeMAP program is the right one for you?

LifeMAP Foundation
LifeMAP Foundation offers intensive, highly individualized coaching with a focus on identifying and overcoming the specific barriers each client faces. Through one-on-one support sessions, coaches help their clients perform executive functioning (organizational/planning) tasks, access social opportunities, acquire skills necessary for employment, and more.

CollegeMAP
College can be an especially difficult time in the lives of individuals with AS. Without the structured routines of high school and the ever-present support of their parents, young adults may find themselves overwhelmed by social and executive functioning challenges. They may become socially isolated, anxious, or depressed. CollegeMAP focuses on helping students manage their workload, communicate with college personnel, and identify campus supports and resources. It also helps students maximize their social opportunities while at college.

LifeMAP for Teens
Transitioning to college or work life is daunting for everyone. Teens with the unique strengths and difficulties of Asperger profiles can benefit from individualized work with a LifeMAP coach. Through this one-on-one coaching model, we aim to reduce the stress that goes hand-in-hand with living as a teen with an Asperger profile and build skills to help navigate the transition to adulthood.

Coaches and clients, working in collaboration with parents identify the specific hurdles unique to each teenage client. Coaches help their clients devise and implement sustainable systems for success, relying on individual strengths, interests and talents. Together they create opportunities for personal growth and lay the foundations for a successful transition to adulthood.

WorkMAP
WorkMAP provides employment coaching to adults with AS who have difficulty finding or maintaining employment. The focus of WorkMAP is to help the individual identify a good fit employment situation, obtain the job, and then succeed in that work environment. Like all LifeMAP coaching, WorkMAP is client-centered and caters to the specific needs of the individuals, helping them develop or improve the skills needed to reach their employment goals. Coaches help their clients with increasing self-awareness, setting up a systematic job-search routine, networking, preparing for jobs interviews, communicating effectively with supervisors, and more.

InterviewPREP (Interview Preparation & Rehearsal Employment Program)
Although they may have superior-range IQs and post-secondary degrees, many adults with Asperger profiles still struggle to get the jobs they desire. Interviewing is particularly challenging because of the pragmatic demands of the situation, requiring theory of mind and social communication skills. In response to this need, AANE has designed a 10-session intensive Interview Preparation & Rehearsal Employment Program (InterviewPREP). The curriculum covers networking, phone interviews, appropriate dress, nonverbal communication, responding to questions, and more. Each client is paired with a LifeMAP coach. The client then participates in a series of interviews with professionals, which can be videotaped; interviewers offer structured feedback about the client’s performance. Interviews are interspersed with coaching sessions to provide time for review and preparations for the next interview. Repeated practice of the interview process can reduce anxiety, increase confidence and build skills for real job interviews.  InterviewPREP is currently available only in our Watertown, Massachusetts office.

Practice Interview
Practice Interview provides a highly realistic interviewing experience for individuals who want to prepare for an upcoming interview or just practice and improve their interviewing skills. Our interviewers are experienced professionals with extensive knowledge of the interviewing and hiring process. Clients receive written and verbal feedback from their interviewer along with a video recording of the interview so they can review their performance and increase their skills.

LifeMAP for Over 50
Aging introduces many new challenges to AS adults. LifeMAP for Over 50 is a pilot program that provides individualized coaching, with LifeMAP’s unique AS expertise, targeted to the needs of our over 50 adults. LifeMAP for Over 50 offers assistance with planning and accessing public benefits, preparing for retirement, developing structure to stay active and socially connected, managing anxiety, and improving quality of life.

Intensive Autism Coach Training (IACT)
Our training program is designed for professionals practicing outside of MA and NH who seek instruction in coaching individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asperger’s, Social Communication Disorder, or other similar profiles). The curriculum is modeled on AANE's very successful LifeMAP coaching program, which has served more than 1600 individuals since 2008.

Our research has demonstrated that LifeMAP guidance through the most confounding aspects of daily life can ultimately decrease anxiety and increase independence and self-esteem.