In today’s episode, Holly interviews Dr. Laurie Stephens.

Dr Stephens is a psychologist who has been helping autistic people for over thirty years. She is a leader in the field of Affirming Psychotherapy, which uses the social model of disability, which focuses on acceptance and highlighting the talents and skills of autistic people. She is the Senior Director of ASD and clinical programs at the Help Group. This includes the Young Learners Preschool, an evidence-based, comprehensive, early intervention school program designed to serve children between 2.9 and 5 years of age with autism spectrum disorder, and Kaleidoscope, which serves LGBTQ+ children, youth, young adults, and their families, and the Training Department which provides education and resources.

Today, we discussed how people with autism are all different and that affirming therapy does not try to fix or change an autistic person to be unautistic, but rather, it can help to make the autistic client feel better.