Reflections on 2024 (From an Autistic Therapist)

In 2024 I worked 50 weeks as a private practice therapist working exclusively with Autistic adults. I created countless TikTok videos with content mostly about Autism. I wrote blog posts, I attended podcasts as a guest, I presented on Autism to the staff at my daughter’s learning center. It’s been a full year. 

What I have learned is that, like everything, Autism is infinitely complex. That the more you dive into it, the more complexity and nuance you will find. Because life is complex and Autism is part of life. This year I was also trained in assessing for Autism using the MIGDAS-2 and co-created a facebook group for Affirming Autistic Autism Assessors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1256259822015649/ (we now have over 200 members!) and we also have a directory located here: https://www.myautistictherapist.com/aaaa-directory

While I feel equipped to assess and diagnose Autism, I find the idea of understanding where Autism begins and ends fascinating. In many ways, Autism is a social construct since there is no blood test or definitive way to define it’s bounds with 100% accuracy. Of course, this is a limitation that most things have as my brain likes to point out since I am constantly searching for perfection only to end up with endless imperfection. I digress.

So what have I learned from a year filled with being diagnosed with Autism myself as well as diagnosing others, running a full-time private practice dedicated exclusively to serving Autistic folks, interfacing with the Autism community both online and in person, navigating my oldest child’s Autism and ADHD diagnosis and IEP, starting facebook groups for Autistic Autism Assessors, posting videos about my clinical and personal experience with Autism, etc? What does this all boil down to?

In a nutshell, Autism is something that someone experiences internally and externally, it is something that shapes our entire reality. And that the best use of knowing that we are Autistic is to have compassion for ourselves and the struggles we have as Autistic people and to hopefully connect with support and community that can help us create a life that meets our needs as Autistic people.