This book is about working as autistic counsellors and psychotherapists. It is a collection of stand-alone chapters put together by members of the international online collective Autistic Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ACP). It shares their main aims: to tackle the lack of appropriate therapy available to autistic clients and to challenge the common stereotypes about autistic people, which are still very much alive and can bar them both from therapy and therapy training. But, because the writers have lived experience of the issues they are working with, they are also writing about ways of working most effectively and helpfully with autistic people. And that is what makes it unique. Each chapter describes both how the writer perceives and processes the world and how they work with clients. Their stories provide incontrovertible evidence that the existence of autistic therapists, far from being problematic or even a contradiction, is quite simply normal. And that neurodiversity, just like biodiversity, enriches, broadens and benefits all. It offers readers – autistic, allistic, therapists and would-be therapists, clients and would-be clients – the chance to meet the contributors and see them as humans, therapists and supervisors. Their hope is that, in its small way, this collection may give readers the understanding that they need to join them in changing the world.
Contents
Introduction
Section A: Finding what works: modalities and adaptations
1. Autism in therapy: Monotropism, meditation and autistic flow – River Marino
2. Training and working as an autistic cognitive behavioural therapist – Danielle Goddard
3. Autism and the body: Dance/movement psychotherapy – Kristina Takashina
4. Art therapy as an AuDHDer – Fiona Villarreal
5. Finding what works – Sally Nilsson
6. Art therapy, somatic experiencing and empathy – Chan Shu Yin
Section B: To be that self which one truly is
7. Finding congruence – Natalie Furdek
8. Don’t be you – Leo Ricketts
9. Trauma and the autistic therapist – Wendy Reiersen
10. The journey from research knowledge to lived wisdom – Silvia Liu
11. Befriending the beast: A therapist and her meltdowns – Debbie Luck
12. Asian American autistic alien – Sharon Xie
13. Working in one’s own community: Self-disclosure and being the self one truly is – Max Marnau
14. The autistic sense of justice and moral injury: Battling the system and blowing the whistle – Shirley Moore
Section C: Autistic therapists for autistic people
15. Complex trauma, language and culture in autistic counselling – Katherine Balthazor
16. To be the supervisor I wished I’d had – Amy Walters
17. Making environments accessible: permission to exist – Elinor Rowlands
18. Neurodiversity-affirming supervision – Romy Graichen
19. Kathryn’s call: The lost generation – Wilma Wake
20. Working with my neurokin – Kathy Carter
21. The autistic therapist and chronic illness – Rebecca Antrim
Section D: Training, trainers and trainees
22. The autistic trainer’s perspective: Educating therapists – Vauna Beauvais and Eoin Stephens
23. The autistic student’s perspective: Training the trainers – Katherine Balthazor, Danielle Goddard, Sylvia Liu, River Marino, Max Marnau, Shirley Moore, Wendy Reiersen, Elinor Rowlands, Chan Shu Yin, Kristina Takashina and Amy Walters