Sticking with it: Psychotherapy outcomes for adults with autism spectrum disorder in a university counseling center setting.
Autistic college students benefit from standard counseling but need about twice as many sessions to feel the same relief.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Trimmer et al. (2017) tracked adults with autism who used a university counseling center.
They compared session counts and distress scores to those of typical students who used the same center.
The study ran for two years and used the center’s normal intake forms.
What they found
Both groups felt better by the end.
Autistic students needed about twice as many visits and more weeks to reach that same drop in distress.
Counselors did not change the therapy style; they just kept going longer.
How this fits with other research
Hillier et al. (2018) show a peer-led campus group cut anxiety faster, hinting that structure may speed things up.
Fahmie et al. (2013) found nine weeks of tailored mindfulness helped autistic adults, again faster than the open-ended care in Emily’s study.
de Jonge et al. (2025) saw small gains when kids got stepped CBT, but Emily saw no extra gain for adults in generic care. The gap is age, not method.
Callanan et al. (2021) link self-compassion to lower distress in college students with autism, giving counselors a clear target to add if progress stalls.
Why it matters
If you counsel autistic university clients, plan for a longer haul. Book double the sessions you expect for typical students. Fold in brief modules like mindfulness, peer support, or self-compassion skills to shorten the runway. Track progress each month so you can adjust instead of drifting.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: Young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience high rates of comorbid mental health concerns in addition to distress arising from the core symptoms of autism. Many adults with ASD seek psychological treatment in outpatient facilities in their communities that are not specifically geared toward individuals with ASD. However, few studies have looked at the effectiveness of standard psychotherapeutic care in adults with ASD. This study aimed to discover how individuals with ASD fare in psychotherapy within a college counseling setting, compared to their neurotypical peers. Clients with ASD (n = 76) or possible ASD (n = 91) were retrospectively identified from counseling center case notes. Data from the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ) were retrieved for each therapy session as a measure of client distress. Clients with ASD showed no difference in level of distress at intake compared to their neurotypical peers (n = 21,546), and improved about the same amount from pre- to post-treatment. However, students with ASD stayed in treatment for significantly more sessions than neurotypical clients, and took significantly longer to achieve maximum improvement on OQ reports. Results are discussed with implications for university and other community based treatment settings. Autism Res 2017, 10: 2048-2055. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study aimed to discover how individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) fare in psychotherapy within a university counseling setting, compared to their neurotypical peers. Clients with ASD showed no difference in level of distress at intake compared to their neurotypical peers, and improved about the same amount from pre- to post-treatment. However, students with ASD stayed in treatment for significantly more sessions than neurotypical clients, and took significantly longer to achieve maximum improvement on Outcome Questionnaire-45 reports.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1843