Students

If you’re autistic, ADHD or AuDHD, or managing mental health challenges, and university feels hard to manage (even when you’re capable and trying), you’re not alone.

This page explains why specialist mentoring helps, what it can help with, and how to get started — calmly and without pressure.

Accessibility

This page works with screen readers and read-aloud tools. If you need this information in a different format, please contact me and I’ll help. Email contact@dsamentoring.co.uk.

What specialist mentoring can help with

  • Planning, organisation, and prioritising
  • Managing deadlines and longer projects
  • Task initiation and motivation
  • Study routines that fit your energy and attention
  • Managing overwhelm and burnout risk
  • Building confidence and self-advocacy
  • Managing anxiety, low mood, or emotional overwhelm in relation to study
  • Strategies to protect wellbeing alongside academic demands

What sessions are like

  • Neuro-affirming and strengths-based
  • Clear structure with flexibility
  • Practical tools such as planners and checklists
  • Calm, respectful, and non-judgemental
  • Focused on what matters most right now
  • Supportive for students managing mental health difficulties alongside their studies

How mentoring is structured

Specialist mentoring supports students with Autism, ADHD, and mental health needs, and adapts to your course, funding, and stage of study. There is no fixed number of sessions.

Support can vary depending on:

  • when your DSA support starts
  • whether you study full-time or part-time
  • whether your course is undergraduate or postgraduate
  • the length and structure of your programme

Support often develops in phases, for example:

  • Early support: understanding how autism/ADHD/mental health affects study, identifying barriers, and setting up workable routines
  • Ongoing support: planning, task initiation, managing deadlines, and responding to changing academic demands
  • Busier periods: extra focus around submissions, exams, placements, or dissertation work, including pacing and regulation
  • Later support: building independence, confidence, and using strategies more autonomously

Support is always shaped around what you need right now.

Course-specific considerations

  • Undergraduate students: managing multiple modules, deadlines, and transitions between teaching blocks
  • Postgraduate / Master’s students: intensive workloads, high reading demands, and longer-term projects
  • Part-time students: balancing study alongside work, caring responsibilities, or other commitments

What mentoring does and doesn’t include

Specialist mentoring focuses on executive functioning: organisation, planning, task initiation, workload management, emotional regulation, and managing academic demands in ways that work for you.

This can include support for anxiety, low mood, and emotional regulation where these affect your ability to engage with study.

It is not therapy, counselling, or crisis intervention and does not include specialist study skills or literacy instruction (such as teaching spelling or grammar rules). Where specialist study skills support is required, appropriate signposting can be discussed.

How to get started

DSA-funded support (step by step)

  1. Check your DSA Needs Assessment report to see what support has been recommended (for example, Specialist Mentor – Autism or Specialist Mentor – Mental Health).
  2. If you’re unsure what you’ve been awarded, contact your Needs Assessor or Student Finance. You can also message me and I’ll help you work out what to ask.
  3. Once support is confirmed, your provider or university disability service will help arrange sessions.
  4. First session: we agree goals, a structure, and what support will help right now.

If you’re waiting for paperwork, you can still get in touch so you know how the process works.