Private autism assessment and coaching – Rebecca’s story

Rebecca shares how her private autism assessment and coaching impacted her life

After 10 years working as a Personal Assistant to the Director of a large PR firm, I set up my consultancy. I loved the job, but my boss was due to retire so I knew the time was right to set out on my own, using all the skills I’d developed. I knew there was a need for remote PA services, especially since the pandemic. I also picked up lots of contacts during employment and filled up my client list almost immediately.

Feeling anxious and overwhelmed

It sounds like a resounding success when I say it like that, doesn’t it? But what it doesn’t show is the stress I had been facing. I am extremely organised, neat and methodical, and checking off each item from a client’s task list brings me a huge feeling of reward. It’s when things don’t go exactly to plan that I get knocked off kilter and I find myself getting very anxious and overwhelmed.

I don’t have a huge social life, but I recently met my partner and they asked if I had ever considered whether I might be autistic. Her cousin had recently been diagnosed, and we were similar in a lot of ways. My previous knowledge of autism was very limited and dated, so I found the idea uncomfortable at first. But I started researching, and what I found immediately spoke to my experience. It felt overwhelming because I had always known I was somewhat different to my peers, but I just thought I was better than them because of my financial success. It feels shameful to say that now, but I was also ignoring the huge bouts of anxiety that came with my achievements.

Private autism assessment and coaching with Aim Forward

I was fortunate that I could afford to pay for a private autism assessment, but after I had my diagnosis, there were no clear steps to take. I still didn’t know how to balance my skills with my weaknesses now that I had acknowledged them. So I went back to the internet, found Aim Forward, and elected to have a needs assessment with them.

This was a really helpful discussion about where I found I had difficulties in work and my personal life, and together we created personalised strategies for tackling the areas I felt I needed more support in. After that, I started working with my assessor as a coach who has helped me implement techniques for managing anxiety. It was a relief to have someone who simply understands that I could process things on a regular basis, like a sense check with someone who knows how I think. She reminds me to look at things from different angles, which is something I find hard to do. The coaching sessions help me to see that there are ways through the difficult times and that I’m capable of finding those ways.