Availability permitting, services Eoin Stephens can provide include:

 

Training, online or in person, for professional groups.

Short- or long-term counselling/psychotherapy for autistic adults.

Semi-structured exploration for autistic self-identification.

One-off consultations for autistic adults and/or family members.

Referrals to other relevant helping professionals.

Professional/clinical supervision.

Other mentoring/support/advocacy services.

These days, an increasing number of clients seeking therapy (or who are already in therapy) are wondering if they may be neurodivergent (usually autistic, ADHD, or both), or have identified themselves as neurodivergent, or have been diagnosed as autistic and/or ADHD. This discovery/ exploration can be helpful in making more sense of their life experiences and struggles, and many will benefit from informed therapeutic help in doing so.

Neurodivergent people (especially when growing up without knowledge of what is different about them) are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, and the suicide risk among autistic people is much higher than in the general population. When they seek therapy, allowance needs to be made for their neurodivergent personality, communication style, perspective, & difficulties.

The main characteristics of autistic neurodivergence are still under discussion, but here’s my current draft, covering differences in Sensory Processing, differences in Information Processing, & differences in Social Information Processing:

  • Intensity of experience, often characterised by extremes of sensory sensitivity.
  • Heightened awareness of aspects of the environment (especially non-social aspects), and intense interest in exploring & discussing some of these aspects.
  • Independent learning (including social learning), with detailed memory for areas of interest, & strong systemising & pattern-seeking abilities.
  • Preference for communication as accurate transfer of useful information (e.g. less interested in small talk etc).
  • Higher value placed on truth, consistency, fairness, rules that make sense, etc, than on social conformity for its own sake.
  • Possible use of stimming behaviours for self-regulation, self-expression, emotional processing, communication etc.

There is also growing awareness that many autistic people may have ADHD as well, and this needs further appropriate therapeutic help.

About Me

       

                  BA Psychology, Dip Counselling                        MA Cognitive Behavioural Counselling, MIACP, MACI

I'm a therapist & lecturer/trainer who has worked in the areas of Counselling/Psychotherapy, Mental Health, & Disability for over 30 years, using a humanistic,  pragmatic, cognitive-behavioural approach.

Therapy approach is Cognitive-Behavioural, Person-Centred, Motivation-Focused, Evolution-Informed.

I've been particularly active in the field of Behavioural Addictions, taking the lead especially with addictive/compulsive sexual behaviours, and received the Irish Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy Carl Berkeley Memorial Award in 2010.

From 2004 to 2016 I worked as College President and as a senior faculty member in PCI College, training counsellors/psychotherapists. I then went back into full-time private practice and contracted training work, and since about 2017 I've been working mainly with late-discovery adult autistic clients, trying to gain a better understanding of the problems they face & their specific therapeutic needs, as well as providing training in this area for many therapists. I believe that any such understanding needs to be grounded in a combination of lived experience, clinical experience & research findings. In 2019, I founded the Institute for Autism-Informed Therapy & Training.

I'm autistic myself, having made the discovery in 2012.

See also eoinstephens.com

 Click here for further details of my CV.