Real Step Forward: Neurodiversity-affirming care becoming standard for psychologists in Australia.

Graphic image announcing new training credit. Source: The Academy of Systemic Behaviour Approach (ASBA)

A quiet win for our community: Australian psychologists must use neurodiversity-affirming approaches — honoring autistic and ND lived experience over 'fixing' us.

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If you've been wandering these caves for a while, you know how rare it feels when the outside world actually listens. When systems shift not because they have to, but because enough of us kept talking, sharing, and refusing to be 'fixed.'

From December 2025, that's exactly what's happening in Australia.

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has made neurodiversity-affirming care the expected standard for psychologists working with Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent clients. It's moving from 'nice to have' to baked into professional competencies by the Psychology Board of Australia.

For many of us — who've sat in rooms where our differences were treated as problems to solve — this is big. Not flashy-big, but the kind of quiet-big that changes how safe we feel asking for help.

What is neurodiversity-affirming practice?

Neurodiversity-affirming practice starts from a simple, powerful place: human brains are naturally varied. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and the rest aren't deficits or disorders to cure — they're different ways of being. The old approach often pushed masking, normalisation, compliance. It left people burned out, misunderstood, and sometimes more traumatised than when they walked in.

This affirming shift flips that. It centres the person's strengths, goals, and preferences. The client leads. The psychologist brings expertise, but never overrides lived experience.

Practical changes can look small but feel enormous: no forced eye contact if it hurts, sensory accommodations like softer lighting, weighted blankets, or fidget options, using written communication when speaking is hard, leaning into special interests as a bridge rather than a distraction. It's care that says, 'You don't have to change who you are to be helped.'

Dr Jessica Paynter from the APS captured it well:

the person is the expert on themselves. We bring clinical knowledge; they bring their life.

That sentence alone would have saved so many of us years of exhaustion.

Why this matters

The stats are brutal — up to 95% of autistic people live with co-occurring mental health conditions like anxiety or depression. Masking contributes heavily to that. When care stops demanding we perform 'normal' and starts meeting us where we are, outcomes improve. Trust builds. Burnout eases. Real progress becomes possible.

What's especially heartening: the APS is rolling this out thoughtfully. Updated e-learning (co-designed with ND experts with lived experience), a free Therapy Accommodations Tool, recognition that autism presents differently across genders, cultures, and ages — no more rigid stereotypes. From December 1, 2025, every registered psychologist needs to understand and apply these principles.

Time to celebrate! Source: Wix

It's not the full revolution yet. We still need better funding, shorter waitlists, more ND clinicians, and societal change beyond the therapy room. But this is a genuine, structural win. One that says difference isn't the problem — the lack of adaptation is.

For those of us who've felt like outliers, this matters. It means the next generation might walk into support without bracing for invalidation. It means more of us might actually get the help we need, in ways that honour our wiring.

If you're in the ND community, supporting someone who is, or just curious — take a moment with this. Explore the APS resources if it feels right. Share your own stories here in the comments or submit your piece. We're building something real, one honest conversation at a time.

Here's to more light in the caves — and fewer bears we have to fight alone.