supportgroup experiences

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Hey everyone,

I got a question. Does anyone of you here have experience in attending a support group? If so, i would like to know what your experiences are in this. Positive, negative, doesn't matter, everything's allright.

Because here's the thing: at the moment i'm busy to start a support group for adults with autism, where i get to be a co-trainer. Point of this support group is to share experiences in general about living with autism, and learning and become more aware of own qualities and strengths.

It's very exited for me, because i have no experiences of this kind of support groups myself. And i never had to be a co-trainer either. But I'm asked especially for my knowledge of autism by my own experiences to participate on this, and asked if i could think for the team on how to start this kind of group and what's important in view of autism.

Ofcourse i have my own thoughts about what's important to consider, but i was thinking hey, why not ask for the collective experience. So my question here is, what are your experiences when it comes to support groups? What worked? what didn't? What are your ideas on where a support group should meet?

Years ago I attended Group Therapy as part of my treatment for depression, does that count?

used to attend a support group once a month,it was split into two rooms; one was for low functioning autistics; we did art therapy from a qualified teacher and had loads of sensory toys to play with, the other room was for parents,there were several specialists who woud attend; a speech and language therapist,a intelectual disability specialist and a autism specialist.


for people who are thinking of setting up a support group,there needs to be a disclaimer sort of thing that anyone who has severe anxiety,panic attacks,meltdowns, challenging behavior,self injury etc needs to be acompanied by someone to support them otherwise someone innocent coud end up injured and itd be the support group thatd end up in legal trouble for not providing staff.

dont just aim the group at people with mild/moderate aspergers/HFA.
many with more severe aspergers/PDDNOS, or classic autism can benefit greatly from just being in a room with fellow autists,it can help build a basic grasp of interaction, taking turns, help with speech and language, a routine that gets them out of the house etc. even if they cant speak they can benefit greatly,and as can HFAs by getting an understanding of what autism is like for people more severe than themselves.

I agree, KOR.

The only one near me seems to be a group that meet at the pub.

only about 5 of them seem to go so they likely already know each other very well and just sitting in a pub doing nothing but talking and drinking with people that already know each other well is just going to keep me feeling like a stranger and not wanting to go back.

Groups are surely a waste of time unless you are doing or learning a new craft or something and it's more an even footing for everyone involved going into the unknown and having something to talk about that they are actually doing now.

Okay, thanks everyone so far!
By my understanding, the target here are HFass'ers, who are living in some kind of counseling-home with 24 hr care.
I'm not familiar with that kind of stuff (i never lived in such settings), and more info i don't have on the targets. So i don't know exactly who i'm dealing with yet, but info is on my way soon.

The first things that came to my mind is:
- limit the size of the group to 5 or 6 people tops (plus 2 trainers)
- be in a very low-stimulus environment.
- be very structural in the course
- pronounce the course in advance
- let each lesson not taking longer than 2 hours a week
- tell what we are going to do everytime in advance (and try to stick with that exactly)
- repeat what we talked about in the previous lessons

To my colleague trainer, who isn't that familiar with giving training to a autism support group (but has a lot experience in giving trainings like these), i advised to take the following into consideration:

- some people with autism are not very good to express themselves through words, and are more likely thinking in images
- some people with autism are more verbal, and talk a lot (like me )
- the environment is VERY important because of a highsensitivity to overstimulation
- some people with autism need a little bit of time to process what their hearing, before they can answer questions or response to certain theme's
- some people with autism are very highsensitive when it comes to the different people in the room, and may be needing more time to adjust to eachother
- most people with autism are taking words very literal, so i think conceptualisation is very important

These are the tips i got so far. Anyone else's complements are welcome!
Also, i don't know how to advice my colleague about the first group of autistic people, those people who think in images, because i'm not an image-thinker myself. Has any of you image-thinkers maybe some tips or advise for me on how to communicate and what's helping or not?
Thanks everyone, you're really helpfull!

Another support group style I have seen used is that the facilitators go around the room and ask people to talk about an issue that is stressing them. People will give suggestions to that person.

How many facilitators?
You have to decide if the facilitators are going to be.
A. Non expert persons on the spectrum
B. Expert persons on the spectrum
C. Neurotypical or mixed NT/ASD experts

Will you allow only those people professional diagnosed?

Will you allow people to bring in neurotypical guests?