Touch the Spectrum was officially set up in 2016, in response to requests from parents and support groups, for a service that taught strategies for living with autistic children and young people in the ‘real’ world. A service that celebrated acceptance, rather than taught awareness; a service that focused first on changing the environment rather than managing behaviour; a service that worked with families by listening to them and a service that was about empowering parents not blaming them.

Touch the Spectrum came about after many years of living & working with autistic people. It is born of much hard work, many mistakes & some very harsh criticism, however our techniques are person-centred, tried & tested, realistic, trustworthy and safe for all concerned.

Touch the Spectrum is a limited company, its director is Paula Holden. The name Touch the Spectrum was chosen in response to a conversation with her family helping people experience life through an autistic person’s eyes, so that they could feel how the strategies they suggested felt. It was more than seeing, more than understanding, it was immersive and complete acceptance.

Much of our work was with children, young people and their parents, supporting them to cope with school, trauma, anxiety and relationships. We would visit homes and places wherever they were most comfortable and focus on meeting their holistic needs, often in partnership with schools, the Local Authority and other agencies.

Over the years, we have trained, gathered qualifications and experience, particularly around autism and neurodiversity, demand avoidance, low arousal and low demand, anxiety, wellbeing, sensory needs and parenting. We have been shaped by life & demand, learning and responding to needs as they arose. We operated successfully for six years, developing training, working within schools and delivering bespoke packages of support for individuals and their families. We were living the dream!