If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens during my adult autism evaluation process, this page offers a transparent, step‑by‑step look at what to expect. My approach is structured, evidence‑based, and deeply person‑centered. Every step is designed to help you feel informed, supported, and understood.
Step 1: We Begin With a Video Consultation
Everything starts with a video consultation (link to calendar). When you sign up, you’ll complete a brief pre‑consultation form where I ask what’s bringing you to an evaluation at this point in your life and what questions you’d like to discuss.
The consultation itself has no agenda. I simply want to hear your story, what you’re hoping for, what you’re worried about, and what you want clarity on. My only goal in this first conversation is to make sure the evaluation process feels like the right time and fit.
Step 2: Intake Forms & Background History
If you decide to move forward, we schedule your first session and I send a set of intake forms (telehealth safety, privacy and confidentiality, consent, the Good Faith Estimate, and a general intake form) for you to complete before we meet. These documents create a transparent, ethical, and well‑supported foundation for the evaluation process.
You’ll also complete developmental, medical, psychosocial, and educational history questionnaires. These forms give me a deeper understanding of long‑standing patterns and experiences so that our first session begins with clarity rather than guesswork.
Step 3: Completing Assessments Before the Interview
For our first full session, we meet together for a dedicated hour. During this time, you begin completing the standardized and self‑report assessments with my support. I stay with you throughout the entire session to answer questions, clarify wording, and help you feel grounded in the process. Anything you don’t finish during our time together becomes gentle “homework” to complete afterward at your own pace.
These assessments explore both general and specific autistic traits, as well as differential considerations such as OCD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, or borderline personality features. Some tools also look at sensory patterns, masking, burnout, attention, and overall mental health, offering a comprehensive view of your lived experience.
All assessments are completed through the secure, fully HIPAA‑compliant client portal I use. This keeps your forms, documents, scores, and communication organized in one protected place, ensuring your privacy and comfort at every step.
Completing these measures, both with me and on your own, helps me understand your internal landscape more fully and allows me to tailor the clinical interview that follows. It ensures that nothing important is overlooked and that your evaluation reflects the nuance and depth of your experience.
Step 4: The Clinical Interview
Once I’ve reviewed your history and assessments, we meet for a two‑hour clinical interview, typically scheduled about a week after your assessment session. This meeting is collaborative, relational, and centered entirely on your lived experience.
During this time, we explore your childhood, identity development, masking, relationships, sensory patterns, burnout cycles, and the strengths that have supported you throughout your life. Many people share that this is the first time their story finally begins to “fit together” in a coherent way.
My goal is to create a space where your experiences make sense, where there is no judgment, no pressure, no assumptions, and no rushing. It is an invitation to reflect, make connections, and be understood exactly as you are.
Step 5: Integrating All the Findings
After the interview, I take time to synthesize everything you’ve shared: your developmental history, assessment scores, self‑reports, and the narrative insights that emerged during our conversation. I’m not looking for isolated traits or single moments. I’m looking for meaningful patterns that appear across your lifespan.
Collateral interviews or supportive data collection can be included if you wish. For example, speaking with a partner, parent, or close friend who knows you well. These conversations can offer additional context, especially for developmental history or traits that may be easier for others to observe. This option is available at no extra cost and entirely up to you.
Importantly, diagnostic impressions are guided by the data, not by intuition or stereotypes. It is the integration of your history, assessment results, and lived experience that clarifies your neurotype.
This is the stage where the full picture begins to emerge, often bringing together pieces that once felt scattered or contradictory.
Step 6: Writing Your Diagnostic Report
Before we meet again, I will write your full diagnostic report. This comprehensive document includes your developmental history, assessment results, my clinical interpretation, diagnostic impressions, and recommendations tailored to your life.
Completing the report before your feedback session ensures that our time together is grounded, organized, and clear. It allows us to focus on meaning, understanding, and next steps rather than processing information on the spot.
Step 7: Your Feedback Session
During the feedback session, I walk you through a simple, low‑tech PowerPoint that presents your results in clear, accessible language. From there, we go through your report together, page by page.
This is a gentle, collaborative conversation. You can ask questions, pause, reflect, or take time to process the information. My goal is for you to leave feeling informed, validated, and connected to the larger story of your neurotype.
Step 8: Your Report & Personalized Resources
After the feedback session, you receive your finalized diagnostic report. Along with it, I provide curated resources, book recommendations, articles, referrals, workplace accommodations guidance, and community supports, selected specifically for your goals and needs.
Importantly, you receive personalized resources even if the data do not support an autism diagnosis. Many people still benefit from support with sensory needs, burnout, executive functioning, identity development, mental health, workplace stress, or navigating next steps.
My intention is always the same: to offer clarity, language for your experiences, and a roadmap that supports your autonomy as you move forward, no matter what the diagnostic outcome is.
Closing Reflection
Understanding your neurotype can bring relief, validation, and a profoundly new sense of direction. Whether you’ve been searching for answers for decades or only recently began exploring these questions, you deserve a process that is thoughtful, affirming, and deeply attuned to your lived experience.
