Al Ossorio

Greetings,I’m Dr. Al Ossorio, a clinical psychologist licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I received my bachelor’s degree in psychology and computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and my doctoral degree from William James College, where I specialized in neuropsychology and assessment. I trained in the Harvard Hospital System, The Veteran’s Administration (Bedford), Wheaton College, and at the Brenner Assessment Center, where I completed a 2 year extended neuropsych and assessment fellowship and developed protocols for adult autism assessment. I have also taught graduate level psychology at William James College.

Autism runs in my family; I have long been comfortable working with, building relationships with, guiding/helping, and learning from autistic people. While I have certainly seen the difficulties that autism can create for people, I have also seen first-hand how neurodivergent people can find their place in the world and truly thrive. The fact is, I have lived with and worked with neurodivergent people for the entirety of my career, whether as a young computer scientist working in Silicon Valley, or more recently as a psychologist providing autism assessments or psychotherapy to autistic clients.

Years ago while reading through the AANE website, I saw the line (paraphrased), “Once you’ve met one person with autism… you’ve met one person with autism!” I wholeheartedly agree with this -- I don’t presume to know what autism has meant for you -- I don’t make assumptions or jump to conclusions; rather, I work to understand the world through your experience and your unique history.  Beyond this, I practice what is called “Positive Neuropsychology”  -- a more recent approach to neuropsychological assessment that focuses less exclusively on people’s deficits and disorders, but on their strengths as well, and on how a person’s strengths can counterbalance or mitigate their difficulties.