Not everyone who has Autism Spectrum Disorder gets diagnosed in their childhood. A lot of the time symptoms go undetected by others. The symptoms then become more apparent to the individual in their adolescence and adulthood as they learn about themselves.
Here at Quintessential Health, we have adults who get tested for Autism Spectrum Disorder every day. We first start with a consultation, then an intake, and then you get started with your testing!
With the free consultation, we will set up a good time for you to talk to an available clinician for about 10-15 minutes. During this, the clinician will break down a few things for you!
We will also open to the floor to see if you have any questions for us and then schedule an intake if you want!
With the intake consultation, you will be scheduled for around 60 minutes. We will find a time that works for you and get you situated with an available clinician. During this, the intake clinician will go over all the information from the free consultation, and they will move forward with gathering information from you. Be prepared to answer questions a lot of questions about yourself as we start to get to know you! If you are ready, we will proceed with scheduling you for your first testing session (virtual or in-person).
In your first testing session, you will meet the testing clinician whom you will be working with for 1-2 120-minute sessions. During the first session, your testing clinician will most likely ask you a few questions regarding your intake in case they need any clarification. They will open the floor to you to see if you have any questions before getting started!
NOTE: We know how these types of appointments can cause anxiety, please ask the questions you want/need, to settle your nerves! We are here to help and want to make sure you are as comfortable as possible!
During your first testing appointment, we will most likely continue with a lot of questions regarding your childhood and development. It is most helpful if you have a parent available to help with questions as remembering back to when you are 4-5 years old can be difficult! If not, no worries! We will work with what you can remember! Think of this first day as more intake questions! You will most likely get a self-report measure for you to do in your spare time, just like everything else, answer honestly to your experience!
During your second and/or third testing appointment, we will go through different testing tools depending on if you are virtual or in-person! Either way is great, it just changes our take on what we do. Hopefully, by this appointment, you have become comfortable with your testing clinician and there will be fewer nerves!
After all testing is complete, we give our clinicians about 30 days to score and write up a report for you. You will be offered a feedback session with your clinician to go over the results and answer any questions you may have!
Each person is a unique individual, so every person’s experience is different! Please give yourself some grace and extra self-care during this process.