Tony Attwood, Isabelle Henault in Sydney, 13-14 March 09

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http://www.aspia.org.au/eventsarchive/attwood09.html

Workshops with Dr Tony Attwood and Dr Isabelle Henault
Friday 13 March 2009 - Adolescence
Saturday 14 March 2009 - Couple Relationships
Wesley Conference Centre
220 Pitt Street (Near Market Street)
Sydney NSW Australia

Phone number within Australia: 0432 507828 and leave a recorded message with your details.

More info and registration forms available on the ASPIA website. Link: http://www.aspia.org.au

ETA: The mobile number is not the only point of contact. Tix for the seminars can be purchased by other means, including a secure online facility. ASPIA is a support organisation for spouses of Aspies, as opposed to Aspies themselves. Their statement of purpose seems reasonable enough, and the fact that they are raising awareness of post-childhood Asperger's is a positive thing.

I'm hoping to attend on the Friday.

ASPIA is a support organisation for spouses of Aspies, as opposed to Aspies themselves.


So are they opposed to Aspies attending?

Well, I'm an Aspie, and I'm going. My son is Aspie and turning 16 this year; I hope to derive insight and understanding about adolescent sexuality in particular.

Aspia in Australia is an abusive partners group.

It’s very sad that Tony Atwood has anything at all to do with them.

They have caused serious harm to a number of families and I wouldn’t be supporting anything they are doing.
No matter how they may try to present otherwise, or who or what they have linked to their site.

They most definitely ARE opposed to Aspies!
There needs to be a thorough investigation into this group, not support given in any way.
Nor support given to any other group or individual that is linked to them.

If you want to see Tony Attwood present, travel to another state.
Though his involvement with this group does cast a shadow of doubt on what he is about, I'm very sorry to have to say.

It was a great disappointment to discover that ASPIA is so closely aligned with FAAAS, a fact which is not immediately evident from ASPIA's own website. In particular, the articles "Parenting with Asperger's Syndrome" and "Asperger's Syndrome in Adults - Potential For Abuse?" are not what you would expect from an organisation which purports to promote understanding between NT and AS partners. From the ASPIA site, emphasis in original:

I'd go for the first day but it's very expensive.

Oh for #%$! !# goddamm $@!# jeezus H @$#!

Not ANOTHER aspie hating "support" group !?

We just killed off FAAAS and Maxine Aston (well, at least nobody of note will share a conference space with them).

* long sigh ...

Wait till AutisticBitchFromHell gets word of this. That name is no joke.

I went to one of their / attwood's seminars a year ago, and posted about the experience at the time.
I've been suspicious of attwood's motives ever since. I think his "distancing" himself from FAAAS and Aston( he still had their websites on his links page last I looked) is less to do with his moral stance, and more to do with the fact a couple of aspies put a rocket up him and blew his head out of his arse.

i actually went to this seminar yesterday in brisbane.
i found it balanced and henault was excellent.
i found Attwood good too.

the queensland seminar was run by Aspergers Services Australia - which is a support group for AS families, kids and partners - basically all who are affected by AS.

the seminar addressed a lot of issues that are relevant to AS people and their partners and kids. there was good info on sexuality, sensory integrations dysfunction, relating where one or both partners has AS - the pro's and cons.

i don't know about aspia - although i contacted them last year.

i felt the seminar yesteday did indeed mention certain difficulties others can have when relating wiht us or living with us. and i also felt there was a great deal of compassion and understanding and insight into how it is for us.
But the reality is, we ARE a mystery to others who do not understand how we think and feel. we process things differently, our notion of love can be different, our special interests can dominate a family, as can out traits. I think it is really great to hear this being said and to also see a conference room of people - NT and AS - who are touched by ASD's and are making relationships and lives together work and work well.

Aspergers Services Australia put on a great seminar and i found it very balanced and supportive of both AS people and their NT partners and family members.
No complaints here!

Maxine Aston came up in discussion and was presented in an objective and ok light actually.

Isabelle Henault also spoke about new research into women with AS and she and Tony both conceded the current diagntostic criteria is not appropriate for many women and needs to be revised as we can present a bit differently to the men with AS. in my case the AS is fairly evident in relation to the current criteria but some women are not so obvious. More women are coming forward to be diagnosed and the current ratio of 4 to 1 male to female may well change in the future.

As a woman with AS and i cannot speak for everyone, i do know my behaviour wiht regards to meltdowns and no ability to regulate emotions (no mid range expression of feelings) CAN INDEED be pretty awful for me and those around me. not everyone is like that, but that is how it is in my family unit (which is an odd one, to say the least.)

i have had a 9 year relationship and we have a child. the relationship ended but we are good friends and co-parent. the relationship has been marred and marked by difficulties in communication, sensory integration issues affecting intimacy, difficulty with socialising beyond the family, meltdowns and a host of other things related to AS. I don't have a problem acknoweldging that and i hate to say it but i have even been abusive in meltdowns.

I don't know about aspia, but i am not offended by the aspia charter excerpt in the above post.
par for the course in our family life!

Can a support group for family members of people with Asperger's Syndrome maintain impartiality toward people on the spectrum? That's the $64,000 question. In the absence of reliable data, there will inevitably be selection bias. For every unhappy spouse seeking comfort and affirmation from a group such as ASPIA, how many other "mixed marriages" are there in which the partners get on quite happily, without any desire to look for help or advice? How are their numbers to be included when they do not present for treatment?

To reiterate. ASPIA's statement of purpose, an excerpt from which is quoted upthread, sounds reasonable enough. However, as long as the picture of AS remains overwhelmingly negative, there seems precious little incentive for a person who could be on the autistic spectrum to publicly acknowledge this, and to accept diagnosis and intervention.

Having read one of Tony Attwood's books, and after reading so much online discussion about him, I'm looking forward to seeing him speak. Due to lack of time and money, I'm only going the one day. As for ASPIA, I'm not going to draw any conclusions until I am better informed.

Whoah, what a lot of info to process. Will post at more length later. Meanwhile... I had some misgivings about one or two things I observed, but overall the experience was a positive one. Probably just as well that I didn't go both days. One day was about as much as I could handle.

yes. i would like to hear your views sleepydragon.
l

a note to all australian aspies and auties:

Who wants to expose them on Today Tonight or ACA?

If the Ku Klux Klan gets to be fashionable again, I'm sure Tony Attwood will be speaking at their conventions.

And people who hate blacks will be making excuses for him and saying they aren't prejudiced because they don't hate "good n****rs."

Of course it isn't fair to compare a racial hate group with a gender hate group.

There's a denunciation of Autism Speaks at the top of wrongplanet's front page, largely because Autism Speaks has shown absolutely no concern about the difficulties faced by autistic adults. But a hate group dedicated to making things even more difficult for autistic adults...not a peep.

Aspies already get blamed enough when things go wrong. We don't need to get blamed more.