OUR VISION
Autism From The Inside’s Vision is for autistic people to have the confidence to live an authentic life with a strong sense of identity, inclusion, belonging, and social connection.
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT YOU?
At Autism From The Inside, we are here to help you on your journey. Our memberships include access to our Autism Resource Vault with content created by autistic individuals who understand the unique needs of our community.
Click the button below to learn more.
COACHING & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Looking for relationship advice, support to advocate for yourself or a loved one, or a better understanding of emotional intelligence? We offer dedicated coaching services across a range of topics, including parenting, relationships, personal growth, and advocacy. In addition, we are available for professional training and bespoke speaking engagements.
1:1 Coaching
We support our global community across the complete spectrum of life's challenges.
Whether you're seeking support for intimate, work or family relationships, parenting, personal growth or advocacy, we can offer the support you need.
Professional Training
Our professional training and services provide organisations worldwide with solutions to empower the autistic people they support with their teams and communities to thrive, shared from a lived experience perspective.
EQ: 101
Our flagship program, EQ:101 is a comprehensive journey of understanding emotions.
You will learn how emotions impact almost every aspect of our daily lives and discover the cues you need to achieve emotional mastery in your life.
LIVE EVENTS
We host monthly online events that are live and interactive and made to help everyone in our diverse global community. You can view our upcoming events on our Events Calendar page. Tickets can be purchased individually, or can be reserved for FREE when you join one of our memberships.
During our monthly webinars, we discuss topics affecting many in the autistic community including managing transitions, coping with shutdown and withdrawal, how to connect with your autistic child, autistic masking, executive function strategies, and more.
In addition to our webinars, we host twice-monthly community events where you're invited to connect with autistics from around the world and join in our discussions on such topics as what being autistic means to you, advocacy, burnout, accommodating your needs, being diagnosed as an adult, and other topics that may come up during our events.
Check out our upcoming events by clicking the button below, and we hope to see you LIVE at one of our webinars or community events soon!
BLOG
Our blog features articles written by AFTI's Paul Micallef and center around such topics as emotional intelligence, what he's learned about autism, personal stories, and more. We also feature guest articles by people in our community where they share their own autism diagnosis stories. Check out one of our featured articles below, or go directly to our blog homepage where you can search and sort by topics/keywords by clicking the button below.
Managing Burnout
Managing Burnouts:
It's a Matter of Space
A day of tackling “admin work” means I have to retrieve the right things from my working memory and access all the background information relevant to make that tiny decision, like what to write in an email, what time to suggest, or to say yes or no to a request. Then, I need to switch as quickly as possible between these tasks. Of course, this takes energy, but what takes the most energy is task switching.
Time and Social Anxiety
Do We Make Enough Time for Meaningful Social Interactions?
We are constantly reminded about the value of time, but what about the importance of connection and good relationships?
Imagine the difference it would make if we prioritise and invest our time into developing more meaningful social interactions to form deeper relationships.
On Not Being a Duck
On Wanting to Be a Duck But Not Being a Duck
Reflections on wanting to be a duck but not being a duck, an analogy on masking as an Autistic person, trying to fit into a neurotypical world.
YOUTUBE VIDEOS
You're invited to join our community of over 400,000 subscribers on our Autism From The Inside YouTube channel. Paul releases weekly videos on topics like autistic masking, ADHD vs Autism, signs of autism, positive autistic traits, and more, all from a neuro-affirming and positive approach. Be a part of our AFTI community by checking out our library of over 600 YouTube videos, sharing your comments on our videos, or joining us live for one of our live stream Q&A sessions.
If you're interested in connecting even more with Paul and our AFTI community, check out our Patreon and consider joining one of our membership tiers.
Seven Signs of Undiagnosed Autism in Adults
(Video)
Autistic Burnout and Overstretching Yourself
(Playlist)
AUTISM FROM THE INSIDE
Welcome to Autism From The Inside (AFTI), where we provide a safe and inclusive space for the autism community to connect, learn, and grow. Here you’ll find a wealth of resources and information to help you navigate your autism journey, including free resources, blog articles, videos, as well as live online events and webinars.
What we do:
Each month, as part of our online membership community, we host a webinar on various autism-related topics. We also run online community events where autistic individuals from around the world can connect and share their experiences in a safe and neuro-affirming setting. In addition to our (paid) member content, every week we release a publicly accessible video to our YouTube channel, including semi-regular livestream Q&A sessions. Both Paul and Shannan are available for individual and relationship coaching sessions and for bespoke speaking, workshops, and training engagements. As of 2025, Paul is in the process of writing his first book that we can’t wait to share with you, and we are planning another online Summit for the end of this year.
Our Vision is for autistic people to have the confidence to live an authentic life with a strong sense of identity, inclusion, belonging, and social connection.
We tailor our programs to meet the diverse needs and interests of our community. Whether you want to learn more about autism, develop new skills or connect with like-minded individuals, we've got you covered.
Our Story:
After discovering he was autistic at age 30, Paul Micallef shifted his career focus from aerospace engineering to working with those in the autistic community. Sharing his experience through public speaking and advocacy, he started a YouTube channel which now has over 400,000 subscribers, and became an ICF accredited life-coach in 2024. Through this work Paul met Shannan Lea, whose own experience as a late-diagnosed autistic woman and mother to an autistic child gave her a shared passion for working with autistic individuals as well as their parents/carers.
Together, Paul and Shannan launched Autism Explained (which eventually became a part of Autism From The Inside) in 2019 with the aim of empowering parents and teachers to create safe, supportive environments for autistic children. After this video went viral, garnering 5M+ views on Facebook, they created their first course titled, Autism 101 For Busy Parents (which you can still purchase or watch for FREE as part of an AFTI membership). After one of their videos went viral, garnering 5M+ views, they created their first course titled, Autism 101 For Busy Parents (which you can still purchase or watch for FREE as part of an AFTI membership). That same year was the inaugural global online autism summit, a free event with over 10,000 attendees, featuring expert autistic speakers from around the world. From there, they began offering webinars, workshops, and courses through their website.
In the years since Autism From The Inside was established, together Paul and Shannan have provided coaching, training, and support to neurodivergent individuals, their families, friends, and employers; created educational and neuro-affirming content including hundreds of YouTube videos, five global online summits (and counting), and dozens of webinars, courses, and workshops…and we are continuing to grow.
OUR TEAM
Paul Micallef
Autism From The Inside
Paul is an autistic life coach, speaker, facilitator, and trainer, with a passion for neurodiversity and emotional intelligence. Leveraging his own lived experience, as well as insights gained from many years working with the autistic community, Paul seeks to promote emotional and psychological safety by bridging the empathy gap between mainstream and neurodivergent culture.
Paul completed a double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Technology from Monash University in Melbourne Australia. He subsequently worked 5 years as a structural stress analyst for Boeing in Port Melbourne and Seattle. In search of a more meaningful life, he left engineering behind to pursue a career which makes use of his natural talent for communication and Emotional Intelligence. Paul is now an ICF-accredited life-coach and (soon to be published) author of “Unlocking Your Emotional Brain”.
Since discovering his own autism at the age of 30, Paul has worked in a variety of mentoring and educational roles helping parents, students, and teachers, to understand the ‘human side’ of autism.
Shannan Lea
Autism From The Inside
Shannan grew up on the Mornington Peninsula and attended Toorak College in Mount Eliza. She holds a BA from the Australian National University in English Literature, Psychology, and Sociology. After 15 years of corporate training, procedural writing, and process analyst employment in Sydney, Shannan was inspired to work with Paul Micallef to establish Autism From The Inside after her son was diagnosed with autism just before his third birthday.
She began a master's degree in Autism Studies at Griffith University but deferred it until 2026 to pursue an accelerated master's degree in counselling at the University of Canberra. She plans to return to Griffith University after completing her Counselling Degree, motivated by a passion to cooperate, serve, and connect.
She is a full-time parent, carer, student, and advocate, focusing on collaborating, engaging with, and celebrating intersectionality and ability within the autistic community. Shannan has been formally assessed as autistic in December 2023, and is proudly neurodivergent.
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