How to choose autism-affirming counselling

Autism-affirming counselling can be a lifeline and game-changer for autistic people and people with AuDHD (autism and ADHD together). It can be a struggle to find the right counselling and mental health support for a number of reasons:

• Lack of awareness and understanding from counsellors and mental health professionals who may not have had sufficient training or lack knowledge. Counsellors and clinicians may also unintentionally minimise or misunderstand challenges faced by neurodivergent people due to biased or outdated views.
• Language that invalidates autistic identities or perpetuates stereotypes.
• Misdiagnosis or overlapping characteristics, where neurodivergent traits are mistaken for other mental health issues, or overlooked due to overlapping characteristics such as anxiety, depression or sensory processing difficulties.
• One size fits all approaches of traditional counselling methods may fail to account for differences in communication, sensory processing, or emotional regulation.
• Communication barriers can arise as some neurodivergent people may have difficulties articulating their experiences and emotions in ways that align with neurotypical expectations.

Other reasons include stigma and stereotyping, and environmental challenges like bright lights, loud noises, or other overwhelming stimuli. It’s therefore useful to check out your shortlisted counsellor’s autism-affirming credentials. A good practitioner will be able to tell you what they do to ensure their counselling practice is autism-affirming, in simple language.

Six signs of autism-affirming counselling

Reframing Autism in Australia have reviewed the latest research and boiled it down to six key areas. There are way more than six, in reality, as the autistic population is very diverse – as Dr Stephen Shore once said, ‘when you meet one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism’ – but more than six here could be pretty overwhelming.

Framed as questions, they can help you determine whether any counsellor or therapist is providing an autism-affirming service or not.

1. What professional development or self-directed study have they done to update their knowledge of autism?

How recent was it? And was the training created by, or with, autistic people?

2. Is their practice an autism-friendly environment?

Do they offer online counselling as well as in-person? Are videos captioned? Do they have sensory tools on hand you can use?

3. How do they describe autism?

How autism is referred to, and the language used, can have big impacts on how you view yourself. If they use pathologising, overly-medical language, or deficit-based terms RUN. That is the very opposite of autism-affirming.

4. How do they individualise their approach to their client’s care?

Again, Dr Shore’s quote applies! Will they get to know your individual sensory profile? Can they reduce abstract language and instead use literal, concrete terms to explain things? How will they get to know your triggers and make you feel safe?

5. Will they get to know and leverage your individual strengths and passions to advance your counselling?

Working with your unique strengths can boost your self-esteem, promote autistic flourishing and is a key component to mental healthcare.

6. Will they provide practical and achievable steps to promote their progress?

Counsellors can help you reach your mental wellbeing goals with practical, realistic advice tailored to your needs. Focusing too much on autism itself or childhood experiences might not provide the support needed to manage your daily life effectively.

If you’re looking for autism-affirming counselling that celebrates your unique difference, get in touch and let’s have a chat about working together.