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Practice, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
Colouring in without talking, and other lessons in neurodiversity affirming therapy
In short
At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney, neurodivergent practitioners said much of their profession was not yet on board, and set out what affirming care looks like in a session.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
A panellist who works as a peer worker described the most ordinary version of a therapy session and then took it apart. “Come sit in a room, talk for an hour.” Some people, the panellist told the first Sydney panel of the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, might be nonverbal. They might want to come in and draw, and that could be really therapeutic for them. The panellist enjoys talk therapy, but said therapy itself can be shaped for neurotypical people, and for some autistic people the standard format may not be the right space.
The example came from the panellist’s own work. As a peer worker, the panellist had had sessions simply sitting with a young person colouring in or drawing, where the young person might not talk for the whole session, but “that is therapeutic and healing for them.” Practitioners, the panellist argued, need to be with the person in front of them and leave behind their biases about what being neurodivergent or autistic looks like.
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Sources the story draws on
- What you need to know about the government's first National Autism Strategy (opens in a new tab), Australian Psychological Society
- Release of the National Autism Strategy 2025 to 2031 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
- Defining neurodiversity affirming psychology practice for Autistic adults: A Delphi study integrating psychologist and client perspectives (opens in a new tab), Autism in Adulthood (SAGE Publications, as listed on the record); Flinders University research portal record
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