Guides
Practical, honest answers to the questions families and adults ask before booking an assessment: what it costs, which route to take, and what actually happens.
Written by Dr Charlie Bamford, Clinical DirectorHCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist · reviewed July 2026
Right to Choose vs private: an honest comparison
NHS-funded assessment through Right to Choose, or going private? Waiting times, availability and control, compared honestly.
Autism in girls: masking, school and the stereotypes
Why autism in girls often looks different: social interest, the helper role, intense interests, perfectionism and the effort behind the scenes.
Why are girls diagnosed with autism less often than boys?
The research behind the diagnosis gap: how our understanding of autism widened over fifty years, and why so many girls were missed.
Understanding autistic girls: what people often miss
The hidden effort, changed plans and self-doubt beneath the surface, and why so much of what matters happens out of view.
Supporting autistic girls: what actually helps
Practical support that reduces hidden effort: information before situations, protected recovery time and interests used as bridges.
Autism in women: understanding something that was always there
Why autism in women is so often recognised late, what masking costs, and why recognition tends to feel less like discovery than like finally understanding something that was always there.
Will schools and the NHS accept a private diagnosis?
How private reports are actually used by schools, EHCP panels and NHS services, and what makes a report genuinely useful.
What happens in a child autism assessment?
The whole process, explained for parents: questionnaires at home, school information, two extended sessions, the team decision and the feedback session.
What happens in an adult autism assessment?
The six steps of an adult assessment, what the session is actually like, and what happens when nobody can describe your childhood.
After an adult autism diagnosis
Relief, grief, doubt and re-reading a life: what adults often feel in the weeks and months after diagnosis, and what tends to help.
Post-diagnostic support: what it is, and what to look for
What good support after an autism diagnosis involves, who it is for, the other routes that exist alongside it, and the questions to ask any provider.