Kieran Rose — The Autistic Advocate, Autism Training

Kieran Rose, known as The Autistic Advocate, is an autistic trainer, consultant, author and researcher based in the North East of England. He works mainly with the people and organisations around autistic people — teachers, clinicians, social care and support staff, HR teams and service designers — as well as autistic adults and parents who want to understand autistic experience from the inside rather than through a deficit lens. His subject matter is the ground many mainstream courses skip: masking, monotropism, autistic burnout, meltdown and shutdown, identity and the effects of stigma.

Diagnosed autistic in 2003, Kieran spent more than ten years as a higher-level teaching assistant specialising in SEND, and worked in disability services for children and adults before turning to advocacy in 2017. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sunderland and an associate researcher with GRRAND at University College London, guest-lectures at universities across the UK, and co-founded The Autistic Cooperative. His research covers masking, burnout, identity and victimisation. He co-wrote Autistic Masking: Understanding Identity Management and the Role of Stigma with Dr Amy Pearson, and his essays are collected in Autism: A Collection of Essays. He is also a parent of three autistic children.

Work is offered in several forms through KMR Training. Organisations can book full-day or two-day bespoke training, one-to-three-hour workshops, keynotes, webinars and longer-term consultancy on policy, sensory environments and service design, delivered across the UK, Ireland and Australia or online, plus supervision and employee support in partnership with Launchpad Associates. Individuals can start with on-demand courses: The Inside of Autism, and shorter courses on monotropism, masking and burnout. A group version of The Inside of Autism adds live time with Kieran, and a free initial consultation is available for bookings.