Autism North East Anmeldelser 42

The team here were absolutely wonderful, responding quickly to requests and ensuring all appointments happened within a helpful time-scale for me. The amount of time and effort put in was amazing, with all of my needs and concerns responded to individually and holistically: in-depth assessments and a real attempt to understand all my experiences and behaviours really made me feel secure. The team are kind, thorough and really clear with all of the people involved in the process, and I would really highly recommend. Regardless of the conclusion they come to, all of your experiences and behaviours are treated kindly and taken into account for a well-rounded report of you and excellent personalised strategies to use going forward.

I highly recommend the team at Autism North East - they were thorough, compassionate, and all highly qualified. I was assessed for ADHD and autism, which took several 1 hour sessions (5 or 6 sessions I think), they also spoke to a couple of family members to better understand my behaviour as a child and in personal life.

I was particularly concerned about being dismissed or falling through the cracks of the diagnostic criteria prior to my assessment as I present as high functioning and high masking, but I never once felt dismissed by Hayley and the team and I did receive my diagnosis.

I received a very detailed report which has been incredibly valuable in understanding how to manage and regulate myself. I can't thank them enough and I'm so much happier now I understand how to work with my brain!

We had a brilliant experience from start to end. The team where very professional and honest everyone was brilliant especially Sarah Jamieson.

Our son and our family as a whole, were in need of compassionate support, advice and direction from a highly experienced team.

We found all of this within Autism North East. Our son had been struggling with attending school, slowly withdrawing from all life, he became a shadow. Neither himself nor us, his parents understood what was happening to his world. Autism North East understood how fragile our son was, they tailored the ASD assessment process to his complex needs as he would not leave his room or engage with any adults as he had completely lost his trust in all grown ups due to bullying, questioning of his needs and therefore no support provided within school.

Slowly Autism North East built up my son’s trust whereby he eventually and happily took part in a face to face assessment which was indeed a hugely significant step for him in his healing process.

Along with a meticulous Autism Assessment, we received understanding, compassion and non judgmental advice for our son and our own well being. Within the storm of applying for an EHCP, school not understanding ASD and therefore providing inadequate support, Autism North East were at that point our anchor.
Our son’s assessment give him insight, understanding and validation to many areas in his life. past and present. He slowly gained a little confidence and liked himself a little more. The assessment and advice for us was absolutely invaluable and based on years of experience. Searching for the right service, the right fit can be confusing, merely a google search, which can highlight services with little experience and cursory assessments.
Autism North East had been recommended to us by 2 seperate parents and a psychiatrist which spoke volumes as to their credibility.

We cannot recommend Autism North East highly enough, they were instrumental to our son’s healing and understanding of himself. As a family they supported us through very dark days and gave us the support we very much needed. A huge thank you to Dr Hayley Atkinson, her kind words will always stay with us.

Autism North East were excellent. All the staff we met were kind, supportive and thorough. The report was comprehensive and has helped my teenager who had been out of school, to go to college.

After years of quiet struggle, she says it was 'a validating experience' that helped her to understand both herself and why school had been so challenging. I would definitely recommend Autism North East.

From the moment we entered the building to the point we received the diagnosis, we were supported and informed.
My daughter was having a diagnosis for autism after much speculation and questioning who she is. The assessment was explained in detail and appointments for each stage of assessment were planned and agreed over a 3 month period. Communication was excellent throughout and times where it was difficult for my daughter to arrive on time were always accommodated. She felt truly listened to and the process was extremely thorough.
The full report was produced very quickly following the final assessment and we had the opportunity to review and send amendments over.
We were really impressed with the level of service and the staff expertise provided by Autism North East and have recommended them to other people looking for a professional service in a much shorter turnaround than a referral through NHS services.
Highly recommended.

We've used Autism NE twice, for diagnosis for both our children (at different times), and in both cases their care, attention to detail, thoroughness of testing and evaluation, reporting and offboarding have been exemplary.

When NHS waitlists are ridiculously long, many parents are turning to private assessors to help with achieving a diagnosis that enables them access additional support services. But with the recent influx of 'less than' suppliers jumping on the high demand bandwagon, how does someone know who is reputable and who is not.

In both cases, the full assessment was carried out by highly qualified psychologists and took a number of weeks, and included more than seven individual tests. Each taking over an hour each with a number of professionals who specialise in differing areas.

The results are then discussed at a multi-disciplinary meeting, before being compiled into a full and comprehensive (30+ page) report, which has now accompanied my children through their secondary education and onto university.

In one case, we also had follow-up meetings with their occupational therapist to discuss strategies that would help our son, and in both cases they facilitated meetings with the schools SEND department to discuss needs.

The help from Autism NE has transformed our family, and our children's lives.

Don't be scammed into purchasing a 'quick fix' diagnosis from a less reputable organisation. If you're in the NE, engage Autism NE to help. You'll not find better in our region.

I would highly recommend Autism North East. They provided a supurb service. Every member of the multidisciplinary team was friendly and helpful. The advice and extra support that was provided after my son was diagnosed really helped me at a time that was very difficult for us. My GP also commented that she had never seen such a comprehensive and useful assessment report before.

After being on NHS waiting lists we decided to go with autism north east after being recommended them by a friend.
The waiting list was around 4 months.
I wanted to have my daughter’s diagnosis before she went into reception.
The appointments we had with the team were extremely professional, friendly and I especially found that there wasn’t too much pressure for my daughter to do all the tasks, something I was concerned about.
The communication from the team was second to none, the speech and language therapist went to my daughter’s nursery and emailed me afterwards to let me know how it went.
Special mention for Dr Dennison, she was professional, clear, friendly and approachable. She explained everything in detail from what would happen at the appointments to the report at the end. She was clearly a wealth of knowledge in her field.
I cannot thank Autism North East enough and I know if I need anything in the future, that they will be my first port of call. I recommend anyone who will listen to use Autism North East if they want answers, guidance and a friendly team of professionals.
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the team at Autism North East. We worked with them in achieving a diagnosis for a family member when CAMHS would not provide the support needed. It was incredibly difficult, but ANE helped our family to achieve a diagnosis and put in place the right strategies which have helped to take us from crisis to success. Anyone reading this review is likely to be struggling or have a family member in need. The team were compassionate and professional. We value greatly the support given and would strongly recommend them to anyone in need of help.

The accepting and professional atmosphere of autism north east really had an impact on me. Having never being validated for my autism at age 22, it was a very emotional experience as I learned more about myself and my brain.
I felt understood and catered for in ways I didn’t know I needed to be.
All the staff were very warm and friendly and they made me feel safe and understood.

As the assessment process of the local NHS mental health services was moving very slowly, we felt we just could not wait any longer. My daughter was very unhappy, and coming into her GCSE year. Her school recommended Autism North East as it had previously found the service to be very effective and carefully tailored to each child. Having been through Autism North-East's process, we agree.

There was a wait of about 5 months, which is much shorter than for the NHS assessment. Once begun, the whole, well-organised, process was completed within 6 weeks. It was very thorough, with a whole raft of top-notch professionals contributing and coordinating their findings. My daughter felt each one put her at ease for his/her particular assessment.

The Lead Clinical Psychologist was very personable, yet highly skilled at getting to the nub of my daughter's problems, a consummate professional.

There was scope for my daughter, and for us as parents, to make our full contributions and to read and comment on drafts of reports.

The final report diagnosed my daughter's problems perfectly and helped us understand better the challenges she was/is facing. It was supported by more detailed, helpful, attached reports for each aspect of the assessment.

The local NHS mental health service is, rightly, sceptical about accepting external assessments, as there are, apparently, some poor quality processes advertised. No such worry with Autism North East! The NHS immediately recognised the quality of the assessment and report and was prepared to move to psychiatric support and prescription, based on the recommendations it contained.

The outcome has been that my daughter is much happier and, although she was doing well anyway, making even better headway at school.

I strongly recommend Autism North-East. It is not cheap to go privately, as the process is wide-ranging and thorough, but it has been worth every penny to see the great impact on our daughter!

I recently contacted Autism North East to support a member of our team who was seeking a diagnosis. From the very beginning their approach was professional, compassionate and incredibly supportive.
Not only did Dr Cottrell provide guidance to the individual, but she also took the time to meet with key members of staff to share invaluable information about autism and ADHD and gave us a much deeper understanding of the challenges our colleague experiences.
As a business we now feel more confident, more aware and better equipped to create a supportive and inclusive workplace. We are extremely grateful for their expertise and would highly recommend Autism North East to other companies.

Our daughter was assessed by the brilliant team at Autism North East and diagnosed with autism and anxiety in early 2025. Everyone we met was warm and welcoming, and really put us and our daughter at ease. We agreed a really clear schedule for the assessment and they kept us in the loop throughout the process. A concern we had going in to the assessment was that our daughter is able to mask her traits quite well, but the team were highly skilled in recognising this and were able to highlight traits that even we weren't aware of as her parents.

The feedback meeting was really helpful, as was the comprehensive report we received. Dr Debbie Cottrell took the time to walk us through all of the aspects of the assessment. The assessment process felt holistic and, although the diagnostic criteria for autism is deficit-based, we really felt that the team and Debbie wanted to highlight our daughter's strengths as well.

We would highly recommend Autism North East to anyone exploring private assessment.

We cannot rate Autism North East high enough! They are second to none and greatly surpassed any expectations we had of the services we used them for. Dr Atkinson and her team are incredible. Their assurance, their knowledge, their skills, the way the immediately put our son at ease. Everything. They are just wonderful.

It is a hard decision choosing where to go and who to use when entering into the minefield of ASD assessments, but they came recommended to us from our son's school, and we could not have been more happy.

From initial consultation to diagnosis (and beyond) they were professional, sensitive, knowledgeable and continually reassuring.

The assessments are thorough and cover all aspects of what we were worried about. Meeting with our son alone for most of the appointments, he came out of each meeting feeling assured and happy that someone was listening, understanding and able to offer words of support and guidance.

The assessment offering a diagnosis was a relief and welcomed. Initially we received a summary of their findings with links of support going forward. But the final report was awe inspiring! Tens of pages long with explanations of each assessment and diagnosis along with a comprehensive summary for the layman!

The NHS is overwhelmed with requests similar to ours and needs for assessment, which is why we chose to go private. Yes there are costs involved, but speaking with others that have been assessed privately elsewhere we can promise the service we received was far higher than those.

We could not thank them enough. We would highly recommend using Autism North East if you had any doubts and needed an assessment of this nature.

The best money every spent!

Outstanding service from start to finish. Our daughter was assessed and diagnosed through Autism North East and we cannot thank the team enough for providing ourselves, our health professionals and our childcare provisions with so much helpful information regarding our daughter and her needs. The wait for NHS services was simply too long for our family, given the severity of my daughters behaviours and struggles. Autism North East provided a much faster service, but just as precise. We were able to get my daughter all of the professional help she needed,much quicker, thanks to them. All of the staff are friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and very thorough in their work. 10/10 I would recommend reaching out if you are seeking a private assessment and diagnosis.

After searching for a long period of time for who to use for a private autism assessment for my son I was recommended Autism North east, I’m so pleased I went ahead, we were met with nothing but empathy and understanding from every member of staff that we dealt with throughout the process, I cried with relief after our initial appointment after being so deflated after a previous experience elsewhere, everything was handled extremely professionally and explained to me in great detail from initial enquiry to the final report and recommendations, I couldn’t recommend this company enough, they also follow NICE guidelines and the assessments are valid for use of NHS services and for schooling purposes. Thank you to all those involved in my son’s diagnosis process, it made an uncertain and daunting time for me much easier I can’t thank you all enough

We cannot recommend Autism North East highly enough. Our experience has been nothing short of outstanding, both for our child and for us as parents. From our very first interaction, the team impressed us with their warmth, professionalism, and genuine care.
As parents, we often worry about whether our voices will be heard and our concerns truly understood. At Autism North East, we felt listened to, validated, and supported at every step. Every part of the assessment process was clearly explained, and the entire team took the time to get to know our son as an individual, embracing his unique needs and preferences.
Our son experiences significant anxiety with new people, new environments, and especially assessments—so we were understandably apprehensive. However, the inviting and calm atmosphere immediately put him at ease. The team were welcoming and sensitive, and within minutes, his anxiety melted away. In fact, he began looking forward to his sessions, which was something we never expected.
The assessment was carried out promptly after our initial appointment, and the communication throughout was excellent. The detailed explanation of his diagnosis and the comprehensive, thoughtfully written reports have been invaluable. We have learned so much, not only about the diagnosis but about how to best support and understand our son. This insight has made a profound difference in our daily lives.
In every interaction, Autism North East has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to both our child and our family. Their supportive, empathetic approach has genuinely transformed what could have been a daunting process into a truly positive, empowering, and life-changing experience. Thank you to the entire team—you have made an incredible difference for us all.

Due to the five year wait for a NHS assessment, I sought out a private assessment for my daughter who was 7 at the time. This was after years of struggling and wondering how to help my daughter in several areas.

I chose autism north east, as it followed Nice guidelines and it has face to face assessments for my daughter.

I made the referral and had to wait for an appointment. All prices were provided to me beforehand so I knew how much I would be paying and for any extras that may be needed.

We were given our first appointment where we met Dr Hayley Atkinson, here she took detailed information from myself and my husband about ourselves, our family and my daughter. From this information given it can then be decided if an assessment is needed or not.

From there we were given multiple appointments in succession within the same week. All appointments were detailed and thorough. As we had to travel some of these were done on the same day to save travelling back and forth.

My daughter worried for her first session, but the staff were knowledgeable and friendly and made her feel at ease. They even allowed her to play some games she wanted at the end.

Hayley also visited my daughters School and observed her and spoke to staff.

All appointments were done within a two week period and we were promptly given the decision once the multi panel team had met.

The report was extensive and thorough with all information needed to support my daughter.

We were invoiced weekly for any appointments and this was clearly set out and itemised with easy to follow instructions for payment.

The staff were so friendly, professional and knowledgeable and mad the whole experience easy. I could not recommend them more. The staff were compassionate at all times and offered advice when needed.

Our final appointment we shared information with the School so that we were able to get the support needed. This has now helped us understand out daughter and her needs to help her thrive.

I used this service due to intolerable NHS waiting times to be assessed for ASD. The service I received was outstanding. Such thorough individual assessments, compassionate and understanding clinicians. Each assessment was explained and a detailed report given to me at the end of my assessments. NHS do not provide post diagnostic support, but Austism NE do .
Highly recommend