Do any UK AS adults have experience of this practitioner?

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Hi, I've done a bit of research into different practitioners who can provide a private diagnosis in the UK and wondered if anyone here had experience of this particular practitioner:

http://www.maxineaston.co.uk/

Just a bit more research before I go ahead and book a consultation for diagnosis. If you're more comfortable PMing me rather than replying directly in this thread then please feel free. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Maxine Aston is a controversial figure in these parts! I own one book of hers and I can't remember anyting supportive or positive about AS in it. Her main interest appears to be in blaming Aspergers for most, if not all, relationship problems.

These threads might be helpful:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt84900.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf97391-0-15.html


And one from outside of WP:
http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/09 ... -scam.html

Thanks for the links. Quite a lot of vitriol in there! Whether it's warranted or not; unfortunately the annonymity of the web does seem to encourage this sort of response in some. I'm looking into trying to get a private diagnosis, ideally in the UK, that won't cost the earth. So far the only 2 clinics that have responded to me have been Maxine's and one other. With Maxine's coming in at £300 and the other clinic asking for £700 (I simply can't afford this) hers seemed like a more realistic proposal.

Any ideas as to who else I could get a private diagnosis from in the UK and how much it will cost? Many thanks.

I can give you a nice, neutral, bottom line.

Maxine simply is not qualified to diagnose you, full stop, that's all she wrote.

She has a "Batchelors" (BA or BSC unspecified) in psychology from Coventry, and an MSC in "Health Psychology" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology ) from an unspecified institution...not a diagnostic field, and it is very hard to understand why, if it from an accredited institution, she would mention it at all without being more specific.

She also has:

A City and Guilds 7407 in Further Education ( http://w1.qehs.net/moodle/course/view.php?id=43 )
Diploma in Casework Supervision (otherwise unspecified)
Some kind of cert from "Relate" (be my guest and figure out what THAT might have been in, http://www.relateinstitute.ac.uk/ , I can't find anything relevant at certification level at all)

Notably missing is any association with the British Psychological Society.

I have gone through the internet archive for any formal details of her qualifications and accreditations without success, and you shouldn't let anyone innoculate your dog, let alone "Assess" (she avoids the word "diagnose" because to claim to do that would be really breaking the law) you for AS without that.

I'd like to say she is a rip off artist...but I don't think she is...she is more like Hitler, an underqualified fanatic with an ill informed mission...to subjugate anyone with AS in a way likely to be deeply psychologically damaging to them.

You could try for a private diagnosis here, in Ireland, Prof Michael Fitzgerald is a LOT more reasonable than £700 and he is not only world renowned (without Attwoods tacky "Barnum Effect" or Simon Baron-Cohen's, much more classy, famous relatives), but also fully qualified...

I would suggest that you stay away from Maxine. Go and ask someone like SBC to suggest who you should go and see.

I have never been to see her, but I have some deep seated worries about her. She claims to be a asperger's researcher and she publishes books with controversial and extreme ideas about people with AS.

An interesting thing is that I have never found a trace of a publication by Maxine in the peer reviewed academic literature. Maxine uses books which I suspect are not peer reviewed as a means of spreading her ideas.

If Maxine is reading then please enlighten us by posting a list of your peer reviewed publications.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I started a thread asking the same question on the general board a couple of weeks ago. No one said anything positive about Maxine Easton that's for sure!

Dilemma Consultancy got a recommendation so i'm in the process of finding out more about that.