About

Phoenix Insight to Thrive is a radically inclusive organization that provides a variety of services to autistic adults and their families, peers, employers, and educators. Our approach is guided by lived experience along with formal training and education,

Purpose

Mission

Empower autistic adults to build meaningful lives through a coach/mentor partnership. To provide families, educators, employers, and community members with education and training towards creating authentically inclusive spaces that respect and validate autistic people.

Vision

Assist autistic individuals in leading self-determined, meaningful, connected lives through coaching and mentoring in a supportive, inclusive, respectful, validating space.

About the Founder

AJ Richard, MA, Certified Autism Coach, is autistic and has over 20 years of experience working successfully with autistic individuals.

Values

Radical inclusivity
LGBTQ+ allyship
Anti-racism
Disability justice
Intersectionality
Holistic approach
Building and connecting to caring community
Non-speaking inclusivity
Self-actualization

Our Stance on Person-First Language

Person-first language is a way of communicating that describes a person as a human with a characteristic, instead of using a characteristic to describe a human. For example, person-first language would be "a person with autism," instead of "an autistic person." Phoenix Insight to Thrive avoids this linguistic pattern that is often seen as more respectful or less pathologizing for a few reasons.

Autism is a central part of who a person is and is nothing to be ashamed of. This confronts the stigma.
Using "autistic" as an adjective can help promote autism pride.
80% of autistics do not prefer person-first language.

Social constructs pressure autistic people to “mask” which means cover or hide autistic characteristics to fit into neurotypical society. Statistics show the cost of masking is high and includes sharply increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. We are striving to defeat the stigmas of an autism diagnosis. We encourage clients to let go of negative stigmas, celebrate who they are, embrace autism as a positive, and self-advocate. Being autistic in a neurotypical world is challenging. However, it is possible to lead a meaningful, connected, and successful life.

Founder

AJ is autistic. She has over 20 years of experience working with autistic individuals of all ages including in therapeutic recreation settings such as camps, day-hab, and community supported living. AJ has experience as a service coordinator serving people with disabilities. She has also spent ample time in higher-education with disability services, accommodations, and autism support programs (four years). As a graduate student, AJ was a volunteer LGBTQ+ mentor. She is committed to ongoing learning and professional development and dedicated to building autism-accepting communities. AJ enjoys challenging the neurotypical status quo and is a dedicated cat mom.

Qualifications:

MA in Leisure, Youth, and Human Services from the University of Northern Iowa
Intensive Autism Coach training through AANE (Association for Autism and Neurodiversity) (2004)
Only AANE trained autism coach in Northern Idaho/Eastern Washington
Safe Zone Ally trained
Member of the College Autism Network
Mental Health First Aid trained
Crisis Prevention Intervention trained