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"The Asperger's mind... a different kind of mind, with a beauty of its own."

Peter Flowerdew - Retired Psychotherapist.

 

Peter ran a private practice in Bristol with a focus on the quality of relationships that clients have experienced, or seek to experience. 

 

Aware of the significance of early relationships, he founded and, for 16 years,  ran 'Help! Counselling' (a charity providing counselling and psychotherapy to people between the ages of 9 and 25) Later, he trained and supervised counsellors and psychotherapists. He also developed and provided therapy to children and adults with a diagnosis, or strong traits, of Asperger’s (Aspies). Peter produced a series of workshops to facilitate understanding and communication between Neurotypicals (NTs) and Aspies using Transactional Analysis, and presented them for several years up until his retirement.

Richard Hall (Richard has a diagnosis of Asperger's)

 

Professionally, Richard is a systems engineer. He also has six years training in Transactional Analysis (TA), mostly in organisational and developmental TA. Although Asperger’s was formally recognised in him in 2012, he discovered TA over 20 years ago and has been using it to understand the behaviour of other people and himself.  Rich understood that people on the spectrum have inherent differences in understanding communication and many NT communication characteristics appear to have limited meaning to an Aspie until seen through a TA lens. 

 

Richard first presented an overview of the ideas of the benefits of TA to people with Asperger’s at The Bristol Autism Spectrum Service, and subsequently, Richard and Peter worked together in developing this series of workshops.

Chris Russell  - Director - (Chris has a diagnosis of Asperger's)

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Chris was a computer graphics specialist and technical illustrator in Environmental Engineering Consultancy for 18 years before her redundancy in 2010.  Rich met Chris shortly after her diagnosis (in 2013) at the Bristol Autistic Spectrum Service, and invited her to learn more about the work he and Peter were undertaking, and eventually, to co-present at the workshops. Chris brings visual translation skills honed over years of turning complex scientific data into diagrams, illustrations and summaries accessible to non-specialists and executives. She uses her highly detailed drawings and photo-realistic paintings to illustrate some of the striking visual thinking and systemising that can be characteristic of Asperger's.

 

Chris also wrote the blog: "The Talentless Liar" which is a frank and candid record of her life with Asperger's and details her, and her NT family's, experiences as 'novices' in Transactional Analysis and her journey through the Aspie TA workshops.

“Chris had co-presented on a number of the 'Apsie 101' workshops, and I asked if she thought it would be worthwhile my attending. (I was skeptical, having had no training in TA or psychology, and was worried I wouldn't understand.) I attended, and was able to follow easily enough, and learned a surprising amount about TA, psychology and my own personality as well...  By the end of the weekend, I had gained enough of an understanding of the language of TA and the differences between the NT and Aspie mind to be able to talk confidently about it with Chris.  Being able to use this common language to explain our experience to one another is priceless.”

 

Ian Russell - Director

(NT) Telecommunications Engineer- Married to Chris Russell

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