Autism & ADHD
Certified PEERS® Provider — evidence-based social skills support for adolescents and adults, developed at UCLA.
PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) is an evidence-based social skills program developed by clinical psychologist Dr Elizabeth Laugeson at UCLA. It’s delivered internationally and supported by peer-reviewed research.
I’m a Certified PEERS® Provider — trained through Dr Laugeson’s team, and I deliver the program with fidelity to the UCLA model here in Noosa.
Who Is PEERS® For?
PEERS® is designed for motivated adolescents and adults who want to build stronger social connections. It’s particularly effective for people with:
Is PEERS® Right For You?
PEERS® works best when three things are in place:
Genuine motivation
PEERS® is for people who want more or better social connection in their lives. It’s not a program you can do for someone who doesn’t want to be there. If you or your young person feels pushed into it, the homework doesn’t land and the program won’t deliver.
Age-appropriate language skills
PEERS® uses structured discussion, abstract concepts, and complex role-plays. It suits people with roughly average-or-above verbal ability. For young people with more significant intellectual disability, a different approach will be a better fit.
A social coach who can participate
For adolescents, this is nearly always a parent. For adults, it’s a flexible role — and if a dedicated coach isn’t available, get in touch and I’ll talk it through with you.
The pre-enrolment assessment is where you and I work out together whether the program is the right call.
Common Challenges
Making and keeping friends doesn’t always come naturally — but social skills can be learned. PEERS® may be a good fit if you or someone you know is experiencing:
The Programs I Run
PEERS® for Young Adults
Ages 18–30
I run weekly sessions for adults while a social coach — often a parent, partner, or other supportive adult — attends in parallel. I deliver the full curriculum with fidelity to the UCLA model.
PEERS® for Adolescents
Ages 12–17
Participants attend weekly sessions with me while parents take part in concurrent coaching sessions. The full curriculum is delivered with fidelity to the UCLA model.
I’ll walk you through specific topics, skills, and the weekly structure during the pre-enrolment assessment.
What You’ll Build
PEERS® runs as a structured weekly program over several months. Each week introduces a new social skill area, with group practice and a real-world task to try between sessions. By the end, participants have a shared toolkit for the situations that make social life hardest — from conversation and friendship-building to navigating disagreements and online communication.
The full curriculum, weekly topics, and session-by-session content are covered when you book in — I’ll walk you through it during the pre-enrolment assessment.
Why a Social Coach?
A social coach — usually a parent, partner, or close support person — takes part in the program alongside the participant, where skills are practised in real life with someone who knows the program, helping them generalise into the real world.
Who makes a good social coach?
For adolescents, this is usually a parent. For adults, it’s often a parent, partner, sibling, trusted friend, support worker, or mentor. The essential qualities are attending consistently, being emotionally safe, and being willing to do their own homework. If a dedicated coach isn’t practical for an adult participant, get in touch and I’ll talk you through the options.
Session Format
Sessions run for 90 minutes once a week. Participants and social coaches attend in separate but parallel groups, each working through the week’s topic from their respective sides. Every week follows a predictable structure — which matters, because predictability helps to consolidate the learning.
Evidence Base
PEERS® is one of the most-studied social skills programs available, with published peer-reviewed research dating back to 2009 and international replications across multiple countries.
An honest note on the evidence
No program works for everyone; however, PEERS® has a strong and durable evidence base for the right participant as determined by the pre-enrolment assessment.
Program Details
Enrolment is limited to maintain small group sizes.
For Parents, Partners, and Social Coaches
If you’re the parent of a teen who is isolated, or the partner of an adult whose social world has narrowed, the social coach role is central to how the program works.
You’ll attend a parallel group for all 16 weeks, learn the same material our young people are learning, and spend a small amount of time during the week gently prompting the skills at home.
Consistency is important. The families whose young people thrive in PEERS® are almost always the families where the coach showed up every week, did their own homework, and stuck with it.
For GPs, psychologists, paediatricians, and NDIS support coordinators
PEERS® is recognised as an evidence-based social skills intervention, is claimable under NDIS plans (self-managed or plan-managed) for participants with related goals, and runs on a structured 16-week cycle. I welcome referrals at any stage, with a pre-enrolment assessment to confirm fit. Let me know if you need referral information to share with families.
PEERS® is a registered trademark of the Regents of the University of California. This practice is independently owned and operated and is not affiliated with or operated by UCLA.
Ready to take the first step?
Schedule a consultation to learn more about PEERS® and whether it's the right fit.