Lucy Sanctuary ADOS-2 Trainer, Autism Assessment & Therapy Services

Main information

Service categories: Counselling and therapies, Diagnosticians

I am an experienced ADOS-2 clinician and trainer. I have provided in house training for several NHS trusts as well as for companies and individuals with a range of different professions, e.g., psychologists, speech & language therapists, occupational therapists, paediatricians, psychiatrists, prison officers, educational staff, social workers, mental health nurses. I run reliability workshops and administration workshops as well as providing one-to-one and group supervision.

I work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide autism assessments for all ages. We follow NICE guidelines and use current gold standard approaches (ADI-R, ADOS, information from nursery, school, college, employment) and screen for other areas of possible difference, e.g., anxiety, sensory processing, activity levels, depending on the individual's profile. I talk to schools with parents after assessment to help put effective support is in place and offer post-diagnostic support. I am particularly interested in assessing girls and women, and have considerable experience of this. This very often means differentiating between autism, mental health and attention deficit hyperactive disorder, which is another area of interest for me.

I strongly believe in joint working and provide family-focused adapted cognitive behaviour therapy for autistic young people, from age 6 up to 18, and I work therapeutically with young adults. Everyone I work with therapeutically is autistic, but they have a range of co-morbid conditions, e.g., anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, eating difficulties, depression, self-harm. It is a privilege to work with such incredible young people, families and schools and related services.