Hands-on Emotion Awareness and Regulation Group Training for Autistic Adolescents (HEART)

Autistic adolescents will be included in the study, recruited from various departments of the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics at UKE, as well as from autism therapy centers. Eligible participants are adolescents aged 13 to 18 years who meet the criteria for a primary diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder-including early childhood autism (ICD-10: F84.0), atypical autism (ICD-10: F84.1), and Asperger's syndrome (ICD-10: F84.5)-and who have sufficient knowledge of the German language. The diagnosis should be confirmed based on developmental history, the ADOS-2 assessment, and a clinical diagnosis from a specialized clinician. Additionally, only autistic adolescents exhibiting difficulties in emotion regulation (measured by the Emotion Regulation Inventory (EDI-SF), T-score ≥ 60) will be included. Exclusion criteria are: below-average cognitive abilities, IQ ≤ 85 (ICD-10: F70); lack of German language skills; or significant visual or hearing impairments that cannot be corrected. Furthermore, patients with severe neurological or psychiatric conditions (e.g., epilepsy, syndromic disorders with neuropsychiatric involvement, psychoses) or current acute suicidality, as assessed clinically, will be excluded.