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Argument, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Neurodivergent practitioners argued autistic clients need therapists who are not blank slates
In short
At Think Autism Melbourne, neurodivergent practitioners challenged the professional rule that therapists should not talk about themselves, arguing that disclosure is often what makes an autistic client feel safe.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Ben Simmons has a ready measure of what disclosure does in therapy. “Do you know how many clients I’ve had because they love Harry Potter and it’s in my bio that I love Harry Potter,” Simmons told the Think Autism Melbourne panel on neuroaffirming practice, to laughter from the room.
The joke came in the middle of a serious argument about one of the oldest norms in the helping professions, that a practitioner should give away as little of themselves as possible. Dani Bultitude had raised it a few minutes earlier while talking about what clients can learn from a practice’s website. In this kind of work, Bultitude said, practitioners can come under fire simply for being a human being in the room. Depending on the discipline, they are told they cannot talk about themselves because that would make the session about them, and that doing so is unethical. Bultitude described the instruction that follows as being told to act as a robot or a sponge, and did not think that created much safety for clients.
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Sources the story draws on
- Therapist self-disclosure and immediacy: A qualitative meta-analysis (opens in a new tab), Psychotherapy 55(4), 445 to 460, American Psychological Association (record at Marquette University e-Publications)
- How can we make therapy better for autistic adults? Autistic adults' ratings of helpfulness of adaptations to therapy (opens in a new tab), Autism (ahead of print); abstract listed by Information for Practice, New York University
More from Think Autism Melbourne 2026
All 48-
3 minutes 51 seconds, captioned A practitioner warned that neuroaffirming practice loses its point once written as rules Dani Bultitude Asked how to separate neuroaffirming practice from the label, the first practitioner to answer at Think Autism Melbourne took aim at policy language, and named Thriving Kids as the risk. - 2 minutes, captioned Schools are unprepared for supports moving into community settings, a practitioner warned Shristi Chand A teacher of ten years turned practitioner told Think Autism Melbourne that schools were about to be handed work they had not been trained for, inside a system that measures performance over impact.
- 9 minutes 20 seconds, captioned Three practitioners on how to tell a neuroaffirming provider from a label Shristi Chand, Dani Bultitude and 1 more Asked what families and clients should look for, a Think Autism Melbourne panel pointed to booking systems, generic websites, unadapted therapy and how a therapist behaves when a client pushes back.
- 5 minutes 28 seconds, captioned Autism or trauma is the wrong question, a Think Autism panel argued Think Autism Melbourne 2026 At Think Autism Melbourne, practitioners rejected the diagnostic habit of asking whether a client’s difficulties come from autism or from trauma, and raised what happens when a client’s language has no word for neurodiversity.
- 2 minutes 47 seconds, captioned An audience member asked for a tick of approval for neuroaffirming practices Think Autism Melbourne 2026 At Think Autism Melbourne, a late diagnosed woman proposed that practices should have to prove they are neuroaffirming. An autistic counsellor then said counselling had no such requirement at all.
- 8 minutes 17 seconds, captioned How practitioners reach young people who do not want to do the work Think Autism Melbourne 2026 A parent at Think Autism Melbourne asked how therapists get vulnerable young people to open up. Two practitioners answered with regulation before talk and with the uses of natural consequences.