Autism Partnership

About Us

Autism Partnership was established in 2000 to provide a comprehensive service to families and professionals caring for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders throughout the UK and the rest of the world.

Our method is progressive Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), based on an established and systematic research-based strategy, which has been scientifically proven to be the most effective intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Autism Partnership is a non-profit company led by our Clinical Directors, Zahira Ali, who holds a Masters in Neuroscience and is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and Donna Benton, who holds a masters degree in Applied Behavioural Analaysis. Both have been working in the field of Autism and ABA since 1999.

As an organisation, we operate two therapy centres, located in Leeds and London, providing one-to-one instructional sessions, group sessions, and training workshops. Both of our centres are registered with Ofsted as Early Years Education providers. We also provide consultation and training to schools and other agencies in the UK and across the globe.

Our UK team consists of more than 20 staff, who all benefit from ongoing training and the expertise of our in-house consultants and supervisors. Our UK team is further supported by our US directors, Dr John McEachin and Dr Ron Leaf, who have more than 40 years of experience in autism intervention and are considered to be leading authorities in the field.

Our History

Autism Partnership is one of the largest and most established Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) service providers for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the world. Formed in 1994 in the United States, we are run by professional clinicians, and specialise in providing one-to-one therapy, group interventions, school consultations, and overseas consultation for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their families.

Our directors started their work together in the 1970s at the UCLA Young Autism Project. Under the mentoring of Dr Ivar Lovaas, a pioneer in the intervention of autism, John McEachin, Ronald Leaf, Mitchell Taubman, Tracee Parker, Sanford Slater, and Andrea Waks learned their profession.

They were involved in all aspects of this seminal project, including the development of curriculum and behavioural intervention strategies, implementing and supervising intervention, training therapists, teachers, and parents, teaching classes, and conducting research. While at UCLA, they contributed to seminal works including books, articles, and conference presentations.

In 1994, they founded Autism Partnership to meet the tremendous need for comprehensive services required by families with children with autism. Based upon the founders’ extensive and unique experiences in providing behavioural intervention to children, adolescents, and adults, we have developed a flexible yet systematic intervention programme that provides a variety of services. Our goal was to build on the successful foundation of our previous efforts by adapting and refining the intervention and making it more widely available.

We are run by professional practitioners and have become a worldwide authority for Autism Spectrum Disorders, with branch offices in various different countries. Autism Partnership now employs more than 300 highly qualified professionals worldwide. They come from various educational disciplines and receive ongoing training from our senior US psychologists.