SWAN Training - Autism, Mental Health and Neuro-affirming Wellbeing

Date: Tuesday 18th November, 2025

Time: 1-4pm

SWAN Training is aimed at professionals wishing to develop their knowledge and practice for working with or supporting autistic people and are focused on professional support and service delivery.

What Can I Expect to Learn:

This session includes

- theory, research and learning,

- lived experiences, and autistic voices

- a consideration of neuro-affirming practice, support and interventions

Built on the voices, experiences and learning of autistic women, girls and non-binary people across Scotland, as well as current evidence and research, this training will support practitioners to explore autistic identity and wellbeing. This interactive session will discuss key thinking around the current prevalence of mental health crises within the autistic community. Building on this knowledge to develop informed strategic and practical approaches for working with autistic people who will present and experience both general wellbeing and mental health crises differently. Attendees can expect to develop a greater understanding of autistic women and non-binary people in general, factors that impact well-being as well as neuro-informed practices and supports that can protect and promote autistic wellbeing and safety

• A foundational look at autistic experience including monotropism, inertia and sensory experience and how this impacts our day-to-day mental health, well-being, needs during crisis, recovery and the accessibility of services
• Explore and identify some of the unique precipitating factors, the internal and external influences that contribute to autistic wellbeing and mental health crisis
• Alexithymia and Interoception - We will also reflect on how thoughts, emotions, pain and distress are experienced and communicated by autistic people. Considering how warning signs and risks may present very differently and the importance of reframing assumptions and misinformation.
• This session will also consider differences in the ways autistic individuals communicate, empathise and build connections. We will particularly reflect on therapeutic interventions, adaptations and neuroaffirming practice.
• Managing Energy - burnout, boundaries and expectations
• Feeling safe -Environments, relationships and autistic trauma

• Considering tools, informed strategies and building connections for clinical interactions, reducing risk, self-care, and safety planning

Attendees will also receive further resources and information about supporting autistic individuals with day-to-day wellbeing, mental health and in times of crisis.

SWAN

Who we are:

Founded as a charity (SCIO) in 2012 SWAN is an autistic-led Charity, providing services run by and for autistic women and non-binary people across Scotland.

SWAN is an organisation led by autistic women, girls and non-binary people for the benefit of autistic women, girls and non-binary people. We create the change we’d like to see in our lives and in society.We do this by providing opportunities to connect with and learn from one another through information sharing, peer support and mentoring. We work in partnership with autistic women, girls and non-binary people and others to drive the change our community wants to see, and to improve the lives of autistic women, girls and non-binary people in Scotland.

Note: SWAN is inclusive of all autistic-identity - clinical or non-clinical diagnosis, NHS or private, self-diagnosed or self-identified.

What we do:

We provide a range of autistic-led services for autistic women, girls and non-binary people, including online peer support, wellbeing webinars, pre and post diagnosis support, local meet-up groups and short-term counselling.

SWAN also delivers specialist, autistic-led training and consultancy to increase understanding of autism and support you to develop autism-inclusive practices.

All of our work is informed by the lived experience of autistic women, girls and non-binary people.

For further information on any of our services please contact info@swanscotland.org or visit www.swanscotland.org

Feedback from previous SWAN training:

"I really wish I had heard your workshop so much earlier in my career it would have helped a great many people I have worked with, so insightful" NHS Consultant

"This training needs to be rolled out nationally. The expertise of the team is vast." - Children 1st Staff

"its brilliant to have authentic training from an autistic person, I find it so useful, all the examples make it much more real and accessible" - CAMHS Clinician

"More indepth than anything I have heard before about how life feels and things you can do to help The examples were relevant and part of everyday life and made so much sense." - Support worker

"Most educational and enlightening thing I have been to in 2022 can not tell you how helpful it was" - Conference Attendee

"So much more positive and strengths based. It made autism real and day to day and the very human impact of lack of understanding and stigma and masking was hard to hear but so important to hear. Coming from an autistic person made it invaluable and authentic and so much more real and true than anything I’ve read" - High School Teaching Staff

" The level of detail and expertise around each section of the training was so valuable and It was really interactive, thought provoking and a supportive environment to think and discuss, thank you" Charity Management Staff

" The entire session was excellent, this training will really help us improve service delivery" NHS Borders Community Mental Health Teams

"All of it was so insightful, and thought provoking. Thinking through communication processes as a two way process between me and a client, thinking through adjustments and sensory environments and setting expectations in relationships. I will never hear the ‘I don’t know’ response to ‘how are you feeling’ in the same way. I loved that my questions were answered from a personal point of view. In that my facilitator knows first hand what the honest and best response was from the point of view of an autistic woman as oppose to theoretically from someone who has studied autism." School Counselling Service