Elaine is the founder of Action for Asperger’s, an award winning registered charity that began in 2008 from the sitting room of her home. As a parent and a counsellor, Elaine could see that the counselling community was not ‘getting it’ as far as autistic people and their families were concerned, and were using modalities of counselling that were designed for neurotypical thinkers, not atypical thinkers such as autists.
In August 2012, the organisation and its 20 or so clients moved from Elaine’s home into a one-roomed premises on a farm in Barnwell, Northamptonshire. Since that time the charity has grown exponentially, with the current client list size approaching 2,000*. In 2015 the charity moved into larger premises in Corby, Northamptonshire, creating the world’s first autism-specialist counselling centre.
In 2016, Elaine Nicholson was awarded a Point of Light award by the then Prime Minister, the Rt Hon David Cameron, and the following day, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, Elaine was made an MBE for services to Education and Asperger’s syndrome. *figure as of May 2017.
