Freqently Asked Questions

We provide a safe, confidential space, carefully attuned to your needs, in which to develop an understanding of your struggles, and progress towards meeting and overcoming your difficulties. During the initial sessions your therapist will be working with you to explore a shared understanding of what has brought you to therapy, how this is impacting upon you and what you would like to be different. These initial ‘assessment’ sessions, will support you in determining where the focus of the work needs to be. If, after initial assessment, you decide to commence therapy, you will work with your therapist to decide upon goals for therapy. Working towards these goals may involve thinking and talking about your day-to-day life, your memories, thoughts, feelings, hopes and worries, etc. Your therapist may ask you to participate in exercises and practices tailored to help you with your difficulties.

We draw upon a range of evidence-based approaches to create an individualised treatment plan, focused on your specific needs. We usually offer weekly sessions, regularity and consistency being central in supporting you to move forward in therapy and make headway with your difficulties.

• In the first instance we will arrange a complimentary 15-minute consultation as an initial screening appointment. This will ensure that a full autism assessment is appropriate for you/your child, as well as explaining the process and answering any questions you may have. If autism seems indicated we proceed to complete further, more detailed parts of the assessment. These include:

• Questionnaires: We will ask you to fill in a number of questionnaires, and also, if the assessment is for a child, we will give you some forms to ask your child’s teacher(s) or SENCO to complete. We
• In-person assessment: The Autism Diagnostic Assessment Observation Schedule (ADOS 2) is carried out with you/your child.

• A standardised autism assessment interview:

• Adult assessments: Autism Clinical Interview for Adults (ACIA). Separate interviews both with the individual having the assessment, and with an informant. An informant can be a parent, a sibling, a friend who has known you for a long time, or a partner.
• Child assessments: Developmental, Dimensional, and Diagnostic Interview (3di) with the child’s parents(s), to obtain a detailed developmental history of your child, their current functioning and family circumstances.

• School liaison for a child’s assessment.

• Following completion of these assessments, the multi-disciplinary team of professionals who have been part of the assessment meet to reach a conclusion.

• Lastly, we will meet with you to discuss the outcome of our assessment, and whether or not you/your child meets the criteria for autism. We will also provide recommendations.​

Please be aware that in a very small minority of cases it is not always possible to reach a diagnostic conclusion. 

We find it helpful to be open and straightforward about the assessment with children. We suggest explaining how all children have things they are good at and things that they struggle with.  We say that we want to see what he or she is good at so we can use these super skills to help with the things that are trickier. Please emphasize to them that there is no ‘pass and fail’ and he or she just needs to have a go and try their best.  It is helpful not to mention to your child that they will be playing games.

You can self-refer for a psychiatric assessment. No external referral is needed. If you have concerns regarding your child then please complete our form describing your concerns.

At Attuned Psychology and Psychiatry all our assessments follow NICE guidance. We provide comprehensive reports outlining all aspects of the assessment process and results. If an assessment adheres to NICE guidance, there is no rationale upon which CAMHS or a Local Authority could not accept private assessment results.

Dr Mastalerz supports Shared Care. Once medication is established, your GP can take over prescribing, this is at their discretion.