NeuroDiversity Affirming Training and Supervision

05/04/2026

Harm can happen when therapy is well-intentioned… but built on the wrong assumptions.

Your training can't possibly prepare you for every kind of client. So it's easy to default to assumptions that lead to misinterpreting Autistic adults.

Like:
• Treating masking as ideal functioning
• Seeing sensory overwhelm through a phobia lens
• Setting therapeutic goals that prioritise normalisation over wellbeing
• Interpreting Autistic communication differences as resistance, avoidance, or lack of insight

This is why autism awareness alone isn't enough in the therapy room.

Read more in my blog: https://www.ndats.com.au/therapy-harm-ethical-practice/autism-awareness-isnt-enough

Image alt text:
Iceberg above and below the water.

Autism aware does not mean autism competent. This article explores the ethical risks of poorly informed therapy and why Autistic adults need specialised, developmentally informed counselling. Drawing on research and lived experience, it examines how lack of autism knowledge in mental health services

04/04/2026

I’m always fascinated (probably more like morbidly fascinated) by people who charge big bucks for training, but can’t get the basics right.

It reminds me a little of arguing online with someone who isn’t constrained by reality or facts. You go away to research before you respond: check your facts and your assumptions and respond with something you can actually back up.

And they come back with: Those facts do
No reasoning. No references. No accountability. Just confidence.

And that's why, in some way, those people will always win. They'll sound louder - because you can yell confidently when you don’t have to check facts. They’ll respond quickly, and it will cost them fewer spoons. Meanwhile, responding with integrity is slower and genuinely costly.

So if you’re like me, working in this space (whether on a larger or smaller scale), there’s a specific tiredness that comes from watching confidence outrun accuracy. The mismatch between the certainty and the wrongness is a very particular ick, like an injustice trigger.

If you’re charging for expertise, the basics don’t get to be sloppy. Words aren’t decoration: they signal values, frameworks, and foundations. And when the words are incorrect, it raises the question of what else might be.

01/04/2026

The call is coming from inside the house...

24/03/2026

Does anyone else get super bothered by some lyrics that don't make sense?

Like that One Direction song "You don't know you're beautiful, that's what makes you beautiful"

The self-defeating paradox drives me crazy! Maybe the misogyny is what makes this paradox less bearable for me?

Now I'm going to distract myself, so I don't fall into a googling rabbit hole about why songwriters feel the need to put in these kinds of logical paradoxes. But feel free to distract me with your own fury about other song lyrics.

20/03/2026

Me: Thinking I'm not super monotropic at all...

Also me, taking the monotropism quiz: "[Your] score suggests that you are more Monotropic than about 95% of autistic people and about 100% of allistic people based on data from the initial validation study."

I thought I would take it in prep for the monotropism workshop on Sunday, and honestly, I'm surprised. I guess it shows me that my subjective reality is really quite different to other people's.

It’s not too late to book for Sunday’s workshop. We start at 2pm AEDT, and you’ll get the full recording if you can’t make it live. Tickets start at $25, and you’ll come away with language, frameworks, and tools for monotropic minds. https://www.trybooking.com/DIAPM

14/03/2026

Counselling Autistic Adults — From deficit to difference & beyond

If you sometimes feel unsure how to support Autistic adults in therapy, you’re not alone. Most counselling training wasn’t built with Autistic clients in mind, but your practice can be.

This Autistic led, research grounded workshop gives you practical, affirming skills you can use immediately, helping you:
• Reduce uncertainty in sessions
• Understand Autistic clients through a neurodiversity‑affirming lens
• Adjust your approach with confidence
• Strengthen outcomes using lived experience‑informed practice
📅 June 20–21, 2026
📍 Curtin, ACT
⭐ Super Early Bird $525 (ends 26 April)

You’ll also receive a 350+ page resource pack, sensory tools, meals, and post‑workshop clinical supervision.

Explore the full workshop and reserve your place: ndats.com.au/counselling-autistic-adults

Spend a full weekend immersed in a practical, research aligned framework for working respectfully and effectively with Autistic adults. This...

03/03/2026

Treatment using the medical model vs neurodiversity affirming therapy

You can help clients by differentiating between unconscious masking and strategic masking and name the risks clearly. Where masking is a survival strategy, you can validate it and reduce the need to use it if the privilege to do so exists. The target is safer internal systems and contexts, not “better camouflage.” Where possible, change the environment first so authenticity becomes possible, and only then consider any personal change.

If unmasking is desired, you might set tiny steps and choose low risk settings first. The pace belongs to the person, not the therapist.

Suggested actions:
1. Build a toolbox of strategies that help with masking & unmasking, such as decompression blocks, sensory regulation, and permission phrases. So you can support clients in coping with masking or help with unmasking through a number of different ways.
2. Create disclosure or "not today" scripts that clients can adapt (e.g. "I'll share this when I'm ready" or "I don't have the spoons today".)
3. Audit where you reinforced masking (e.g. praise for eye contact, tone of voice, using the phone) or even in your note "client refused eye contact". Replace with reinforcement for regulation and the use of descriptive, non-judgmental wording.
4. Prepare ally signals in your therapy room, like visual cues that your space is neurodiversity affirming. For example, naming or welcoming stims, or providing sensory tools.
5. Add in a supervision reflection point: “Where did my framing or pace implicitly reward masking?” Bring one instance to supervision and design a plan for change with your supervisor.
6. Create opportunities for client-led (and optional) authenticity markers (like preferred seating, stimming, direct speech)..

26/02/2026

𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐒 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐁𝐀 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬? 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆.

We really have a big problem with things that we believe are "deviant", and very little problem with overriding people's own personal wishes of how they actually are. Whether that is being left-handed, q***r, or Autistic (and there are many other examples).

Australia has banned gay conversion therapy in most states (not all), but only in the last few years, but here we see state-sanctioned - and sometimes mandated - Autistic conversion therapy (Some NDIS plans will only have behaviour support as a funded support).

On that note, I'd like to welcome a new follower to the page, not that you're not all special and amazing. Henny Kupferstein, Ph.D.is someone whose work I've been quoting in my own work for a long time now, and is such a force in the movement. Their research on the harm of ABA is an extremely important piece of work. They're amazing. I encourage you to follow Henny's work.

Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322239353_Evidence_of_increased_PTSD_symptoms_in_autistics_exposed_to_applied_behavior_analysis

* Psychologists can also earn this rate

PDF | Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in adults and children who were exposed to... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

26/02/2026

Reflection isn’t just about thinking—it’s an active process that changes your brain. When you pause to reflect, you activate the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that supports reasoning, planning, and emotional regulation. This
shift moves you out of reactive survival mode and into intentional choice.

Repeated reflection strengthens neural pathways through neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new connections.

Each time you link an experience to insight, you create richer networks for memory and problem solving. Over time, this makes it easier to:
- Notice patterns
- Improve emotional regulation
- Respond in ways that align with your values

Alt text
Reflection creates insight.
It links experience to understanding and drives learning.

24/02/2026

Treatment using the medical model vs neurodiversity affirming therapy

Regulation is the foundation; exposure is optional (and can often make things worse).

Suggested actions:
1. Create a client‑chosen “safety menu” for session setup (quiet start, slower pace, movement break, headset, dim lights).
2. Build co‑regulation into your session routines (predictable starts/ends, longer transitions, brief shared breathing or grounding).
3. Prepare low demand regulation options (weighted lap blanket, soft lighting, movement breaks).

Alt Text
First column is titled Medical
Subtitle: Sensory Strategies
- Sensory exposure
- Increase tolerance
- Ignore sensory aversions

Reasons to avoid
Uses exposure and tolerance goals that can escalate distress in hypersensitive systems.

Second column is titled Neurodiversity Affirming: Subtitle: Sensory Strategies
- Sensory safety
- Adapt context before tolerance
- Co-regulation

Reasons to use
Prioritises safety; adapts environment and offers co‑regulation before any tolerance work.

24/02/2026

True for kids and teachers - also true for therapists and adults. If you have not heard of things like alexithymia, monotropism, the double empathy problem, spiky profile - these are basics for knowing when working with Autistic people. And if you don't know about them, you are doing your Autistic clients a disservice.

Think you don't see Autistic clients...? You probably do - they are overrepresented as a therapy population, they might be undiagnosed or just not disclose their Autistic identity because so often it's badly received.

My courses go through all of these concepts - please invest in doing better for Autistic adults in therapy, because when therapists have no neurodiversity affirming autism training, the outcomes for those clients are exceptionally poor.

22/02/2026

✨ Calling all girls and young women aged 10–25! ✨
Want to make a real impact in your community and have your voice heard?

Fearless Women is inviting you to join our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC). A space where young people come together to share ideas, talk about issues that matter, and help shape programs that support girls and young women.

At this moths meeting, we’ll be diving into topics that matter to young women right now, including:
• Life after the social media ban for under‑16s
• Loneliness and isolation

🗓 Next meeting: Monday 23 February 2026, 4:00–5:30pm
📍 In person at Level 1, Unit 5, 17–21 University Ave, Canberra
💻 Or join via Zoom

💬 Why join?
• Influence real decisions that affect young people
• Meet other passionate girls and young women
• Build confidence and leadership skills
• Help create positive change in your community

Whether you’ve been to YAC before or this would be your first time, you’re welcome to jump in and share your voice.

Follow the link below to register your interest, we’d love to see you there. 💛
https://evt.to/0h0zp3qqtsdj