1st Edition
Improving Mental Health Therapies for Autistic Children and Young PeoplePromoting Self-agency, Curiosity and Collaboration
Edited By Georgia Pavlopoulou, Laura Crane, Russell Hurn, Damian Milton Copyright 2025
244 Pages 12 B/W IllustrationsPublished November 26, 2024 by Routledge
This unique, collaborative book, featuring contributions from autistic and non-autistic experts, presents cutting-edge thinking on mental health and service transformation in relation to autistic children and young people (CYP) and their families.
Investigating how to implement collaborative approaches to supporting autistic CYP's mental health, this book considers ways for professionals to share power and co-design models of support, promoting self-agency and supportive environments for autistic acceptance and wellbeing. Each chapter includes reflections and vignettes from autistic CYP and allies, key questions and thinking points for readers to consider. The book also includes a link for an e-library with multimedia material with the top take aways for clinicians such as animations, flyers and recorded interviews.
The book will be of immense interest to individuals working with autistic CYP and their families in mental health at any level.
'This magnificently written, breathtakingly comprehensive book is a milestone, offering solid theoretical grounding and practical approaches for making mental health care more accessible to autistic children and young people, while encouraging their autonomy and learning from their insights. The authors are on the front lines of a compassionate transformation in society's understanding of neurodivergent people that is both long overdue and desperately needed.'
Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
'There is an urgent need to develop mental health work with autistic children and young people and their families: to make it more empowering, accessible, and effective. This treasure trove of insights, understandings, and practical guidance is a wonderful means of addressing that gap: developing evidence based practices that put the client- in all their complexity, agency, and humanity -at the heart of the work.'
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton
'In these times of rapid changes, it is crucial to get the best information available, so I can only encourage mental health professionals and, frankly anybody curious about autism today, to read this practical, comprehensive, neuroaffirmative and wonderfully documented book. Thank you!'
Bernadette Grosjean, M.D. RET- Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association Associate Professor of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
