UPDATED Feb 2023 with free resources for accessing Black-led therapy
This is too important to leave to the winds of social media. Therapy is a vital resource for most everyone but when you’re neurodivergent, accessing support that works for you can be challenging.
This episode of the Neurodiverging podcast is *so* excellent, it is required listening IMO. Additional resources are below.
Danielle Sullivan, host, certified life coach, and Guide at The Autastic Community discusses why it’s so tough for us to access the help that’s readily available to others and breaks down ways autistic people can locate, validate, assess, and best use the therapy options we may have available to us.
How Do I Find A Therapist? A Guide For Neurodivergent Folks
Part one covers the basics of finding a therapist that’s a good fit. Part two covers finding support when you’re neurodivergent.
Read the full episode transcript (with useful links!) on the Neurodiverging website. Listen on Anchor or right here 👇🏽
Find Support
The services below may have providers that work with autistic clients. Do your due diligence to determine if they’re an autistic practitioner and/or using a neurodivergent-affirming approach.
You heard me, free.
freeblacktherapy.org
There are resources to many paid therapy resources that offer culturally competent therapy listed as well. As far as autism-specific therapy, that’s still a find-it-as-you-can situation. But guess what? We’re working to change that inside The Autastic Community. If we don’t, who will?
National Queer & Trans
Therapists of Color Network
“Our Mental Health Practitioner Directory is an interactive digital resource that helps QTBIPOC connect to QTBIPOC mental health practitioners. With more than 300 practitioners, this resource is essential to help our communities gain greater access to therapists who are aligned with healing justice.
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Other Resources
Autism, psychotherapy and trauma: why many autistic people need a different approach
This episode of The Square Peg Podcast. covers: alexithymia, autism and trauma, CBT, friendships, proprioception, psychoanalytic therapy, sensory issues, social issues.
Can therapy solve racism?
NPR’s Code Switch examines therapy from the perspectives of people of colour. Not autism-specific but a valuable conversation to inform your search for support.
Listen
Why Doesn’t Standard Talking Therapy Work for Autistic People?
From Dr. Alice Nicholls, autistic clinical psychologist.
Read
The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy
By Steph Jones.
“In this candid, witty and insightful exploration into therapy, Steph Jones uses her professional and lived experiences as a late diagnosed autistic woman and therapist, as well as consulting therapists from across the world and tapping into the autistic community, to create the ultimate autistic survival guide to therapy.”
Buy On AmazonFor Mental Health Professionals
Thread For Clinical Practitioners On Recognizing Autistic Patients
Share this guide with your mental health practitioner. Sam Porter is a Neurodivergent Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist who works to improve care and support for autistic & ADHD parents.
Read
Working with Autism – Best Practice Guidelines for Psychologists
Share this guide with your mental health practitioner. The sources are respected and includes input from those with lived experience.
Read