Karen-Anne is a specialist mentor for autistic people. As someone who is autistic and has ADHD, her clients find it a relief to work with a practitioner who truly understands them.

Karen-Anne shares how she is a changemaker for autistic people through specialist mentoring, delivering autism awareness training, getting involved in research and pilates for people with hypermobility.

Can you tell us about the role of an autism specialist mentor and the benefits of being autistic yourself?

An autism specialist mentor is somebody who works with autistic people to support them with whatever goals they've got in different settings. So, you might work with university students, somebody in the workplace, or somebody planning a career change or pre or post-diagnosis.

Being autistic is the most important part. It means that I can understand my clients intrinsically and the challenges that they face.

I quite often say to my clients, “There's nothing that you will tell me that I will think is strange or odd or weird”. You can see the relief quite often on people's faces that they're free to talk about their enthusiasm or their rich internal worlds, and I don't find that odd. Sometimes that's the first time that has happened for that client.

How does having a mentor improve the lives of autistic people?

Having a mentor gives people space to reflect on what they might want and need, in a way they may not have had an opportunity to do before.

Many of the people that I see have had lots of interventions before. They might have had mental health support or counselling. But it's not been the right model for them. And what they've done is try and please the practitioner. You know, “Yes, I am having a breakthrough. Yes, I am feeling better” when it's not genuine. There has been a lot of masking going on.

I think there is a lot of hierarchy in therapeutic relationships. What we're trying to do here is work alongside people to work towards whatever they're bringing.

All I try to do is hold space for that person where they can come and be in that space for an hour with somebody who's non-judgmental. They can be their complete selves. No mask, no artifice, and they can talk about whatever they want to talk about, maybe with a bit of a steer, maybe with a few ideas thrown in, and usually that is enough for people to find their own solutions.

You've been delivering autism awareness training since 2010. Could you tell us a little bit about this?

The delivery of the autism awareness training is a joy. I know some people find it daunting, but I enjoy talking about my lived experience. So that's what I try to bring to it first and foremost.

I am somebody who wasn't diagnosed until quite late and was misdiagnosed several times up to that point. I was a patient of mental health services and I think it's important to share those experiences, especially with NHS staff or people who are working in mental health.

The important thing is that we get to demystify a bit what people think autism looks like. Quite often just being a woman, just being in the space can completely change people's minds about what they think about autism.

You are part of the Autistica Insight Group. What has been a highlight of your involvement in this group?

I have been involved with the Insight Group for several years, it is always wonderful to meet with the other group members and engage with research projects if I can.

A highlight for me was attending an autism and employment round table event last year where I was able to share my experience of supporting clients into work and talk about the barriers we can face as neurodivergent people in the workplace. As autistic people in society, we are not heard or listened to enough, especially when it comes to how best we can be supported.

You are helping to create change for autistic people in many ways. How else are you making a difference?

I like the idea of autistic elders within our community. I try as much as I can to support my neurodivergent peers to set up their small businesses or access new careers, especially when they involve using their experience to help other autistic people.

We can lack networks, both personally and professionally, and I do my best to try to create opportunities for neurodivergent people to collaborate or create peer groups. I have been very fortunate to work with inspiring charities like Autism Forward and the NDSA, along with autistic-led companies like Hendrickx Associates, who have supported me to grow and diversify my work.

I also retrained to be a pilates teacher several years ago and then upskilled through additional training to focus on hypermobility, I founded Pilates for Neuro-diversity in response to many exercise classes not being accessible to autistic people, I now enjoy teaching IMM Pilates to all neurotypes.

There are very few autistic accredited mentors in the UK. Why is that and how can we change that?

I think there are very few accredited mentors who are autistic, just because it seems like we're not going to be able to do it.

Maybe we've been told that we won't be good at it, or maybe that's not a job for us because we've got a “deficit of empathy”, or whatever people think. And that's not true. There's a real demand. And I think if we look at the criteria required to become an accredited mentor, especially at universities, it's not as much as people think. It's not as hard to get into the role if you are interested. There's lots of good training.

There needs to be more of us because some people doing specialist mentoring work are coming to the end of their careers. We need more neurodivergent people to take over from us. So, if you are interested, please get involved!