Season 3: Key messages for practice

In this episode of The Portal Podcast, Professor Sarah Lonbay and Dr Lesley Deacon speak with Jenni Guthrie about her work exploring the experiences of autistic and neurodivergent social workers and students. Jenni shares insight into the lack of research in this area, the challenges autistic professionals face in social work, and the strengths they bring to the profession.

In this episode of The Portal Podcast, Professor Sarah Lonbay and Dr Lesley Deacon speak with Professor Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, a Swedish sociologist and social work professor, activist, and member of the autistic community. Hanna shares her journey from queer studies and community activism into autism research, including her own “community assessment” and self-identification as autistic.

In this episode of The Portal Podcast, hosts Professor Sarah Lonbay and Dr Lesley Deacon speak with Dr Laura Lennuyeux-Comnene and Professor Rebecca Charlton from Goldsmiths, University of London, about the COAST Project – Co-designing Autism Social Work Training. The project focuses on collaborating with older autistic adults, social workers, and social care providers to create training that supports social workers in working more effectively with autistic people aged 50+.

In this episode of the Portal Podcast, Professor Sarah Lonbay and Dr Lesley Deacon speak with writer and author Alice Running about the systemic issue of parent-carer blame in autism and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) services. Drawing on her lived experience as an autistic mother of neurodivergent children, Alice explains how she has repeatedly encountered damaging narratives from professionals, ranging from assumptions about her parenting to misinterpretations of her children’s needs.

In this episode of The Portal Podcast, hosts Professor Sarah Lonbay and Dr Lesley Deacon speak with Dr Amy Pearson, a developmental psychologist at Durham University’s Centre for Neurodiversity and Development. Amy shares her research journey from a traditional, deficit-based view of autism to a neurodiversity-affirming perspective, informed by both her professional work and personal experience as a late-diagnosed autistic woman.