When Being Normal Isn't the Goal: How Therapists Co-Transform Beyond Normal with their Autistic Clients

For over a century, attempts to fix, capture, and control a way of being now known as "autism" have haunted and harmed countless autistic people, all under the guises of medical care and treatment. These unjust events precipitated from rigid Western scientific and cultural paradigms about what is real and what is normal, leading to the deep misunderstanding and social oppression of autism and other non-normative ways of being. Presently, autistic people still endure oppressive and traumatic behavioral interventions and minority stressors (such as internalized prejudice and discrimination) in consequence of living in an "autistiphobic" world – a world that is preoccupied with being normal. Yet, non-normative ways of being such as autism generate new possibilities, which can liberate and facilitate connections between people. Systemic and cybernetic therapy frameworks – in combination with insights from the neurodiversity paradigm of autism – may offer insights into co-transformative psychotherapy practices with autistic clients and people close to them, enabling more authentic autistic being in the world. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how neurodiversity paradigm-embracing therapists retroactively make sense of their co-transformations with autistic clients; specifically, their reinterpretations of social normativities and connectedness. Results showed that participants came to both 1) recognize and oppose normative oppression in their therapeutic practices and 2) align with neurodivergent authenticity, autonomy, and connection as therapists and people. Implications of this research for therapeutic practice and broader sociopolitical issues are discussed at the end of the project. The goal of this research is to offer curious therapists possible paths for ethical, liberatory, and generative work with autistic clients.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Development

Department dc:contributor.department

Adult Learning and Human Resource Development

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Tillett, James Ian Skipper

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Russon, Jody M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Grafsky, Erika L.
• Sanner, Caroline
• Shivers, Carolyn
• Walker, Nick

• Autism
• Neurodiversity Paradigm
• Phenomenology
• Systemic Therapy

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:42267

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/124343