Great Acclaim from the Chair of Acto for Vanguard
We were honored to deliver a presentation for The Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO) at their 2022 conference in November.
This was the very first time that Eoin and I had delivered a training session together and it was thrilling! We had 54 attendees in our Zoom-room, all psychotherapists and counsellors who are working online and are wanting to know about working therapeutically with autistic adult clients.
Adrian Rhodes, the Chair of ACTO, contacted me the next day to let me know that he had joined our session on the day, as he felt unskilled in working online with autistic adult clients and wished to learn more about this important issue. In his email to me. In his email, to me, he said, “You and Eoin made a lot of very complicated material so clear and understandable”, and that he, “learned a great deal in a short time”.
He added that he found that, “there was a gentleness of presentation and a really good pacing of material - which spoke a to a huge amount of knowledge in reserve - and to areas of importance for us all”. I was so very chuffed to hear him say that because I had enjoyed the creative process of writing the presentation and did intend to weave layers of knowledge into the talk. How lovely it is to have your efforts recognised and appreciated.
Eoin made the slides and collated the references, and in fact, carved out the original pathway that the presentation took. And then we shared the ‘spotlight’ of presenting between the two of us. ACTO conference attendees also had access to the recordings, and Adrian finished by saying, “I’ll be going back to the presentation on the recording [to pick through the layers of knowledge]”.
Due to the success of the presentation, and the encouraging comments from Adrain and other attendees, we have been inspired to start writing a certificate-level course for counsellors and psychotherapists working with autistic adult clients.
Thank you to ACTO for the opportunity to present our work at the Conference, and to Adrian Rhodes, The Chair, for his commendation.
If you are a counsellor or psychotherapist seeing clients online or at a distance using digital media, and you would like to become a member of ACTO, please do contact the membership team to enquire about this.