Professor Andrew McDonnell reviews ‘The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health, and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far’ by Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan (2025). In this new publication, Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan deals with a number of highly sensitive areas, including potential and misdiagnosis of a range of conditions such as ADHD, autism, cancer, and long Covid. Dr O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology in London, presents a view that overdiagnoses of many conditions leads to a race for explanat

Jane is a 38 year old woman who lives on her own. She has had several mental health crises over the years and has had multiple diagnoses such as borderline personality disorder depression, bi polar disorder. These have caused her great confusion. She even said to someone close to her 'am I mad?' She has struggled to maintain work and she can be impulsive and describes herself as 'manic" After a referral to the Studio3 Team who conducted a diagnostic assessment for autism it b

Explore how autistic traits in women, including sensory sensitivities and social challenges, can relate to self-injury behaviours.

The team at Spectrum Gaming talks about their new website, Autism Understood, a resource for autistic young people and adults.

Professor Andrew McDonnell shares some key things to consider when seeking an autism diagnosis or assessment.

Dr. Rebecca Fish, a researcher at Lancaster University, reviews The Reflective Journey: A Practitioner's Guide to the Low Arousal Approach by Professor Andrew McDonnell, offering insights into its practical applications for managing challenging behaviours I have been working as a researcher for people with learning disabilities and/or autism in forensic services since 1997. I have heard many tropes about ‘challenging behaviour’, as well as seeing dehumanizing and individuali

A review of 'The Ice-Cream Sundae Guide to Autism' by Debby Elley and Tori Houghton.

A review of ‘A Mismatch of Salience: Explorations of the nature of autism from theory to practice’ by Dr. Damian E. Milton (2017) 'A Mismatch of Salience' by Dr Damian Milton It was a real pleasure to read this illuminating book by Dr. Damian Milton. Damian is an esteemed colleague of Studio 3 and an expert in the autism field. He works for the National Autistic Society, is on the committee at Research Autism, and also teaches and lectures at the University of Kent. He is a c

Studio 3 clinician Dr John McDermott discusses relationships and autism, and the role played by the emotional and relational world when supporting clients. The importance of relationship in the lives of people who have an autism diagnosis is a crucial part of our practice at Studio 3. When working therapeutically with clients, parents or caregivers, we aim to capture individual client meaning and what they might need from the people who support them. In psychology we refer to

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln We often speak about quality of life but, the term happiness is often avoided as it is considered to be subjective. However, when thinking about people with autism who sometimes become very stressed, happiness and well-being are meaningful goals. Happiness is defined as the overall appreciation of one’s life-as-a-whole; in short, how much one likes the life one lives (Veenhoven, 2006). Studies hav