Understanding and Supporting Autistic Wellbeing

SWAN Workshop: Understanding and Supporting Autistic Wellbeing

Date: Thursday 27th August 2026

Time: 18:30-20:30

SWAN Workshops are for anyone who wishes to learn more about autistic people, whether as an ally (families, friends, carers, colleagues and supporters) or a professional.

Whilst suitable for anyone, workshops are focused on everyday experiences rather than professional contexts.

What is this session about?

This session aims to equip participants with a deeper awareness of the unique ways autistic individuals experience and navigate the world, and how internal experiences and external responses and attitudes shape their sense of self, safety, and wellbeing. Attendees will develop practical skills to recognise challenges, support day-to-day wellbeing, and take effective action as allies. By the end of this session, attendees will be able to identify common barriers to wellbeing for autistic women and non-binary people, recognise strategies for effective self-care, and understand how to provide meaningful allyship.

Topics covered include:

· Stigma and autistic trauma: Exploring how societal attitudes can impact mental health and self-esteem, and the effects of discrimination or misunderstanding on long-term wellbeing.

· Monotropism and wellbeing: Understanding how focused interests shape daily experiences, influence energy levels, and play a vital role in wellbeing and self care.

· Developing positive autistic identity – validation and masking: Considering the importance of feeling accepted and the impact of masking on mental health and identity.

· Importance of belonging: Highlighting the benefits of supportive communities and authentic connections for confidence and wellbeing.

· Intersectionality – Gender and Sexuality: Examining how overlapping identities influence experiences of wellbeing, inclusion, and access to support.

· Managing energy – burnout, boundaries, and expectations: Identifying practical strategies for preventing burnout, setting healthy boundaries, and managing daily demands.

· Feeling safe – environments and relationships

· The role of interoception and alexithymia and their impact on self-care.

· Autistic empathy – feeling heard and understood: Exploring differences in communication and the importance of feeling genuinely listened to and validated.

· Autistic self-care – reframing neuro-normative expectations: Identifying self-care practices that honour autistic needs, rather than conforming to typical standards.

Attendees will have an opportunity to explore diverse perspectives on what is wellbeing, along with practical tools for neuroaffirming approaches, in both personal and professional contexts.

If you have any questions or would like any further information about the workshops please get in touch info@swanscotland.org

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