How can psychologists meet the needs of autistic adults?
Ditch the casual chit-chat—autistic adults engage faster when you lead with clear plans, special interests, and sensory-friendly seating.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rachel and colleagues wrote a position paper. They asked, 'What happens when psychologists use everyday small-talk with autistic adults?'
The team reviewed therapy stories and autism research. They built a list of common rapport habits that can misfire.
What they found
Neurotypical rapport moves—eye contact, open-ended chit-chat, vague check-ins—often backfire. Autistic adults may shut down or mask.
The paper says adjust your style: speak plainly, share the session plan up front, allow parallel seating, and invite special interests.
How this fits with other research
Jackson et al. (2025) extends this idea into assessment. Their strengths-based feedback sessions kept autistic in-patients engaged and calm.
Mathur et al. (2026) push the same theme further. They ask ABA teams to sit with uncomfortable autistic critiques and adopt humility-based changes.
Graber et al. (2023) give the ethical map. They show shifting goals from 'look neurotypical' to 'increase autistic choice' keeps ABA and neurodiversity in the same boat.
Why it matters
If you serve autistic teens or adults, your usual rapport tools can quietly stall therapy. Swap small-talk for shared-interest conversation. Offer an agenda before you start. Let the client choose seating and eye-contact rules. These micro-shifts cost nothing but build trust fast—and the evidence chain from assessment to ethics says they’re overdue.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In a recent editorial, Mandy described an autism mental health crisis because autistic people are more likely to experience mental health concerns, yet they are less likely to get help. When autistic people do seek support, services tend not to be well matched to their needs. Alongside the six ideas Mandy suggested for addressing the mental health crisis, we think it is essential for psychologists to start changing the way they work to improve the person-environment fit for autistic clients. The relationship between a psychologist and their client influences the gains a client makes from engaging in therapy. The way psychologists are trained to build an effective working relationship with clients is based on neurotypical communication styles. The double empathy problem tells us that autistic clients relate to others differently to non-autistic clients, and so we propose that psychologists, especially when not autistic themselves, need to build the therapeutic relationship in a different way. We feel this is important, as the relationship between a psychologist and client is understood to be an important factor in how much the client can benefit from therapy. In this letter, we draw upon Bulluss' call for cultural competency when working with autistic clients, and further insights from autistic psychologists, and propose that psychologists rethink some taken-for-granted aspects of practice to be better able to create a sense of interpersonal safety when working with autistic clients.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613221147346