Autism, neurodiversity and shifting paradigms

Autism has changed. Many EMDR therapists will have been trained at a time when most individuals with diagnoses of autism were boys with learning disabilities. Now increasingly girls are being diagnosed, and in recent years there has been an exponential rise in the number of adults receiving diagnoses. With this change has come a shift, from the understanding of autism as a ‘neurodevelopmental disorder’ to something which many autistic adults describe as a di!erent way that they experience the world. Different, but not necessarily worse. This is the neurodiversity paradigm, which suggests that individuals have di!erent types of brains and that these are not inferior to each other. Rather than seeing autistic people as having a ‘disorder’, it suggests that we should instead focus on adapting the environment so that they can thrive.

This affects everything; from the way we talk about autism to the way in which we plan treatment. In this talk, we will explain the neurodiversity paradigm and the effect it is having on the lives of autistic people today.

Conference

English

Naomi Fisher
Debbie Spain
Caroline van Diest

Fisher, N., Spain, D., & van Diest, C. (2023, March). Autism, neurodiversity and shifting paradigms. Keynote of the 21st EMDR UK & Ireland Annual Conference & AGM, Glasglow, UK and Virtual