About this service
Teen Life is a supportive six‑week course for parents and carers of autistic young people aged 10–16.
Delivered by trained and licensed Family Action Parent Support Workers, Teen Life offers practical tools, shared experiences and expert guidance to help families understand and navigate the teenage years. The programme, set up by NAS – the National Autistic Society – is flexible, accessible and shaped around what families say they need most.
More Information
Our Teen Life service – delivered both face-to-face and online – helps equip families impacted by autism with strategies to help understand and support their child/young person at a crucial time in their lives. Available within the first two years of diagnosis, the young person must be aged 10-16 and be registered with a North East Essex GP.
Our next six-week course is due to start in July. Please complete a referral form or contact us for more information, using the email above.
Each course is limited at ten families (two members of each family can attend) with the ability for parents to attend the programme with a supporting professional if they chose. The sessions focus on:
- Understanding autism and autistic identity
- Stress and anxiety
- Understanding behaviour
- Health and wellbeing
- Puberty
- Education
- Transition to adulthood
"I am so incredibly grateful to have had a chance to attend this course. Before the course I was overwhelmed and emotional, not knowing how I could help support my son and feeling like a failure. Now I feel so much more confident and have so many ideas and strategies to help him. I am incredibly grateful to your team for this!"
Previous parent
Equipping families in this way – offering strong and effective strategies to support both their child and themselves, the parent/carer – results in both a positive impact on the child as well as the wider family. Empowering and strengthening the family unit helps provide a better start in life for children and, longer term, improves wellbeing whilst reducing the need for more complex and costly interventions.
Our six-week course are due to start in July. Please contact us for more information.
Need different support?
Whatever issues you or your family face, we are here to help. If this service isn’t right for you, you can find a different service, contact our helpline, FamilyLine or browse our self-help articles to find the right support for you.
Call, text, email or web chat FamilyLine
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, worried or upset about any aspect of your family life, FamilyLine is here for you. We offer free emotional support and guidance on family relationships, conflict, parenting, caring, financial worries and more.
Contact FamilyLine
