The ASD In Church Team

Thanks you for visiting our website. We are a small team of interested volunteers based in Northern Ireland and we hope you find the ASD In Church resources helpful.

James Nelson

James is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist working full time in an NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health team in Northern Ireland, and a Youth Leader in his local church. He is passionate about the theology of autism, and the use of digital innovations in healthcare. He is married to Laura and they have two young sons.

Kathryn Beck

Kathryn enjoys exploring new cities, loves a good hike in the Mournes and experiencing live music! She lives in Belfast, is an Occupational Therapist and
currently works in an NHS schools team. She volunteers with The Big House and her favourite weekend of the year is Shine camp! Kathryn loves working with children and is excited to see churches and
organisations seeking to love, include and learn together with children and young people with autism and additional needs.

Gillian Carlisle

Gillian worked initially as a Secondary level English and Drama teaching and is married to Stephen, a Primary School Headteacher. She has three children, and following her son's diagnosis of ASD she completed an MA in theology focusing on the Spirituality of Children with ASD (available here). Gillian works full time on the staff team at Newtownbreda Baptist Church, where she is the Pastoral Care Coordinator.

We hope this website is helpful and spurs you on to learn more. Unfortunately we are not able to respond to individual queries or accept speaking invitations at present but please see our resource section for more information and other helpful websites.

We express appreciation for our logo to our friend and freelance graphic designer Sarah Farling (sarah@pennyfarlingdesign.com).

We are grateful to Matthew Good and Josh Norris for filming and producing our videos.