Supportive Adult Autism Assessments with Julie Bjelland, LMFT
Author of the forthcoming clinical book, Autistic Women: A Clinician’s Guide to Neurodiversity-Affirming Identification and Support from W. W. Norton
My autism assessment process is designed for adults who may have spent a lifetime masking, adapting, appearing to manage well externally, or feeling misunderstood by traditional diagnostic approaches.
This thoughtful, affirming process centers your lived experience, developmental history, sensory and nervous-system patterns, communication style, relationships, masking, strengths, challenges, and internal experience.
You deserve understanding that feels respectful, compassionate, and deeply attuned to who you are. 🩷
Adult Autism Assessment
This assessment is available for adults age 18 and older.
The assessment includes:
A Client Information Form
Three comprehensive written autism assessment questionnaires completed at your own pace
Detailed clinical review of your written materials before we meet
A 90-minute live video assessment and results session
Verbal feedback, education, and supportive discussion
Time to ask questions and discuss possible next steps
A one-page diagnostic letter if autism is clinically identified
This is a private-pay assessment and is not billed through insurance.
Full payment is required when scheduling.
PayPal Pay Later may be available when PayPal is selected at checkout, depending on eligibility.
Who This Assessment Is For
Adults of all genders and backgrounds are welcome.
This assessment is designed especially for:
Women
Nonbinary and other gender-diverse adults
Sensitive adults
High-masking and internalizing adults
Adults exploring autism later in life
Adults whose autistic traits may have been missed in previous evaluations
Adults who appear to manage well externally while experiencing significant internal effort, sensory overload, exhaustion, or burnout
BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ adults are warmly welcomed and affirmed.
Why an Autism Assessment Can Be Meaningful
For many adults, seeking an autism assessment is about understanding yourself and your needs more fully.
A thoughtful, neurodiversity-affirming assessment can help explain lifelong patterns that may have felt confusing, overwhelming, or painful. Many people seek assessment after years of feeling different, misunderstood, burnt out, or as though they have been working much harder than others to manage everyday life.
Learning that you are autistic can bring relief, validation, and a deeper understanding of your nervous system. Years of uncertainty and self-blame may begin to soften when there is language for your experiences.
Instead of continuing to wonder, “What is wrong with me?” many people begin asking, “What does my nervous system need?”
An assessment may help you:
Understand your sensory, emotional, and relational experiences
Recognize masking and its impact
Make sense of autistic burnout and energy limitations
Identify your needs, strengths, and supportive accommodations
Find approaches to therapy and self-care that better fit your neurotype
Feel more grounded in your autistic identity
Move toward greater self-compassion and self-permission
Self-identification is valid and respected within the autistic community. Some adults also want a formal clinical assessment to feel more certain and grounded in their understanding of themselves.
An autism assessment is not about proving who you are. It is an opportunity to understand yourself with greater clarity, compassion, and care.
How the Assessment Process Works
1. Schedule Your Assessment
When scheduling, you will complete a Client Information Form with essential background information and acknowledgment of the assessment expectations and policies.
2. Complete the Written Assessment Questions
After scheduling, you will receive a confirmation email with links to Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Written Autism Assessment Questions.
You may complete these questionnaires at your own pace over multiple days.
All three parts must be submitted at least 48 hours before your appointment so I have enough time to review your responses carefully.
Because this is an in-depth process, please give yourself time and space to reflect, rest, and return to the questions as needed.
3. Detailed Clinical Review
Before we meet, I carefully review your written materials.
This advance review helps me understand your developmental history, lived experience, strengths, challenges, patterns, and support needs. It also allows our live session to be more focused and meaningful.
4. Live Video Assessment and Results Session
The live video session is approximately 90 minutes and generally includes:
About 45 minutes together to explore relevant areas and review the assessment findings
A 15-minute break
A final 30 minutes for discussion, questions, and supportive next steps
During the break, you may hydrate, have a snack, move, rest your eyes, use the restroom, or spend a few quiet minutes regulating your nervous system or writing down questions.
During our time together, we will clarify relevant areas, discuss your lived experience, review the assessment findings, answer your questions, and explore supportive next steps.
The session is not recorded.
What the Assessment Explores
The assessment considers the fuller pattern of your lived experience, including:
Early developmental experiences
Sensory processing
Nervous-system patterns
Communication and processing differences
Social and relational experiences
Emotional processing
Masking and camouflaging
Autistic burnout
Executive functioning
Predictability and routine needs
Deep interests
Interoception and body awareness
Strengths and adaptive strategies
Functional impact
Support needs
Your internal experience is meaningful clinical information, even when it is not visible from the outside.
Why This Approach Is Different
Many traditional autism assessment models place significant emphasis on externally observable behavior.
This can make autism harder to recognize in people whose traits have become internalized, carefully managed, or hidden through years of masking and adaptation.
My assessment approach looks beneath outward presentation and considers what it has taken for you to navigate daily life.
The process is especially supportive for adults who have spent years appearing functional while privately experiencing sensory overload, relational vigilance, exhaustion, confusion, shutdowns, or burnout.
You do not need to perform, present yourself in a particular way, or explain everything perfectly.
Many autistic adults experience delayed processing, difficulty summarizing complex experiences verbally, anxiety during appointments, or uncertainty about what information is important. The written assessment process gives you time to reflect and communicate experiences that may be difficult to access during a live conversation.
For many people, this may be the first clinical space in which their internal sensory, emotional, relational, and nervous-system experiences are listened to as meaningful parts of the assessment.
Assessment Scope
This assessment evaluates autism only.
It does not include formal evaluation or diagnosis of:
ADHD
Trauma-related conditions
OCD
Anxiety disorders
Learning disabilities
Intellectual disabilities
Personality disorders
Medical conditions
Other mental health or neurodevelopmental diagnoses
Relevant overlapping experiences may be discussed when they help clarify your autistic presentation, but they are not separately evaluated or diagnosed.
This is a clinical autism assessment. It is not a full neuropsychological evaluation, educational evaluation, forensic evaluation, legal disability evaluation, or treatment plan.
It does not include intelligence, academic, or learning-disability testing.
If you need documentation for an employer, school, government agency, disability program, licensing organization, or another institution, please ask the organization what type of evaluation and documentation it requires before scheduling.
Assessment Fee and Payment
$2,000
The assessment fee covers the complete process, including the extensive written questionnaires, advance clinical review, live assessment and results session, verbal feedback, education, support, and diagnostic documentation when autism is identified.
Full payment is required when scheduling. PayPal Pay Later may be available when PayPal is selected at checkout, depending on your eligibility through PayPal.
Please review the cancellation and refund policies before scheduling.
Optional Personalized Autism Profile Report
The standard assessment includes a one-page diagnostic letter when autism is clinically identified.
Clients who are identified as autistic may choose to purchase a more detailed Personalized Autism Profile Report after completing the assessment for an additional fee.
This neurodiversity-affirming written report explains why autism was clinically supported and how your autistic neurotype appears across areas.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Your assessment is private and confidential.
This is a private-pay service, and information is not submitted to insurance.
Please attend the live session from a quiet, private location where you feel safe discussing personal information.
You are welcome to share any communication, sensory, processing, or accessibility needs that would help you feel more supported during the assessment process.
Meet Your Assessor
Julie Bjelland, LMFT
I am a licensed psychotherapist specializing in adult-discovered autistic women, gender-diverse adults, and the Sensitive Autistic Neurotype. I am the author of the forthcoming clinical book, Autistic Women: A Clinician’s Guide to Neurodiversity-Affirming Identification and Support from W. W. Norton. My assessment approach centers lived experience, masking, and the internal sensory, emotional, relational, and nervous-system patterns traditional models may miss. As an adult-discovered autistic and queer woman, I offer an affirming, culturally responsive space for LGBTQIA+ & BIPOC.
Ready to Begin?
After scheduling above, you will receive the information and written assessment forms needed to begin.
Please allow enough time to complete the questionnaires thoughtfully and submit them at least 48 hours before your appointment.
I encourage you to create space before and after the live session for rest, nourishment, and gentle nervous-system care.
You are welcome exactly as you are. 🩷
Have Questions?
Please review the Frequently Asked Questions below or contact us for assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
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If you choose PayPal at checkout, you may be offered PayPal’s “Pay Later” option, which allows eligible clients to spread payments over time through PayPal. Approval, available payment terms, and any applicable interest are determined by PayPal.
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The Adult Autism Assessment includes a client information form, Written Autism Assessment Forms Parts 1, 2, and 3, careful review of your written materials before we meet, a 90-minute live video assessment/results session, verbal feedback and discussion, education and supportive next steps, and a one-page diagnostic letter if autism is formally identified.
This option does not include a detailed written Personalized Autism Profile Report.
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The Personalized Autism Profile Report is a detailed written summary available to clients who complete a full autism assessment with Julie Bjelland, LMFT, and for whom Autism is clinically identified through that assessment process.
It expands on what we discuss during your assessment/results session and may include your autistic profile, developmental patterns, sensory profile, communication and relationship patterns, masking and burnout patterns, functional impact, strengths, support considerations, and a shareable Autism Profile & Support Guide.
This report is especially helpful if you want something detailed to revisit, bring into therapy, or share selected parts with trusted supports.
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The diagnostic letter is a brief, one-page document that states the diagnostic outcome when Autism is clinically identified.
The Personalized Autism Profile Report is a much more detailed written summary of your autistic profile, patterns, strengths, support needs, functional impact, and personalized support considerations. It is available only to clients who complete a full autism assessment with Julie Bjelland, LMFT, and for whom Autism is clinically identified through that assessment process.
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The report may be helpful if Autism is clinically identified through your assessment and you want a detailed written explanation to revisit later, use in therapy, share with loved ones, or keep as a personal guide for understanding your autistic profile, needs, and supports.
It can be especially useful if you process information better in writing or feel too overwhelmed during the session to remember everything discussed.
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No. This is an autism-focused assessment. It is not a full neuropsychological evaluation, legal disability evaluation, educational testing report, or guaranteed accommodations document.
If you need documentation for a school, workplace, government agency, disability benefits, legal matter, or another organization, you are responsible for confirming their specific documentation requirements before scheduling.
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When Autism is clinically identified, you may choose to share your diagnostic letter, and if purchased, your Personalized Autism Profile Report or Autism Profile & Support Guide with a therapist, provider, workplace, school, family member, loved one, or trusted support person.
However, every organization has its own requirements. I cannot guarantee that any specific school, workplace, government agency, disability program, legal setting, or other organization will accept the documentation. Please confirm their requirements before scheduling if you need documentation for a specific purpose.
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A separate workplace accommodations letter may be available for an additional fee. This is different from the diagnostic letter and different from the Personalized Autism Profile Report.
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After scheduling, you will receive links to the Written Autism Assessment Forms. Parts 1, 2, and 3 must be completed at least 48 hours before your scheduled video session.
These forms are an important part of the assessment process. They help me understand your lived experience, developmental history, nervous system patterns, strengths, challenges, and support needs before we meet.
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The session is 90 minutes total. We will meet for about 45 minutes, then take a 15-minute break so you can hydrate, have a snack, move, rest, or regulate your nervous system. Then we will return for the final 30 minutes.
During the session, we will explore relevant follow-up areas, review the results of your evaluation, discuss whether autism is identified, answer questions, and talk about supportive next steps.
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Autism assessments are provided by live video session.
You do not need to live in California to participate in an autism assessment with Julie Bjelland, LMFT. Your California location can be temporary, such as a hotel, friend or family member’s home, or another safe and private place where you will be during the session. Your permanent residence may be outside of California.
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All autism assessments are private and confidential. No information is shared with insurance, agencies, employers, schools, or family members unless you choose to share it yourself or provide written permission.
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This assessment evaluates autism only. Many autistic adults also have co-occurring or overlapping experiences such as ADHD, anxiety, trauma history, sensory sensitivity, burnout, depression, OCD traits, or chronic nervous system stress.
These patterns may be discussed when relevant to understanding your lived experience, but this assessment does not provide a formal diagnosis for anything other than autism.
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Many late-discovered autistic women and high-masking adults have been missed in previous evaluations, especially when autism was understood mainly through more externally visible or stereotyped presentations. Some people are told they are not autistic because they make eye contact, have relationships, are articulate, have empathy, did well in school, or have spent a lifetime masking and adapting.
Your previous evaluation can be helpful context, but it does not automatically determine the outcome of this assessment. My process looks beneath external presentation and centers your lived experience, developmental patterns, nervous system needs, sensory profile, masking, burnout, communication style, relationships, and internal experience.
If you believe you are autistic, your self-understanding is worth taking seriously.
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That is very common. The written question forms help reduce the pressure to explain everything live. You do not need to present perfectly or remember everything during the session.
The process is designed to be gentle, collaborative, and supportive, with space for nuance, processing time, and nervous system care.
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This is a private-pay service and is not billed through insurance. You have the option to pay upfront or If you choose PayPal at checkout, you may be offered PayPal’s “Pay Later” option, which allows eligible clients to spread payments over time through PayPal. Approval, available payment terms, and any applicable interest are determined by PayPal.
Because autism assessments include advance preparation and review of your written materials, please give at least 48 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. This allows time for the appointment to be offered to someone else and honors the review time set aside for your assessment.
Appointments canceled or rescheduled with less than 48 hours’ notice may not be eligible for a refund. Please review the scheduling page carefully before booking.
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If you do not see an available time that works for you, please contact us to ask about availability.
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Sessions are held by live video. The video link and instructions will be included in your scheduling confirmation.