Here Be Dragons: an autistic woman and clinical psychologist’s reflections on narrative therapy

Abstract

This paper is a collaboration between Hannah- an autistic person seeking therapeutic conversations- and Fran, a non-autistic clinical psychologist and narrative therapist. We are writing this paper to share some of our journey together as expressed through Hannah’s therapy inspired poems. Our hope is to make visible how narrative therapy can be a powerful therapy for autistic/neurodivergent people as well as an honest reflection of the hazards we have encountered. The original intention was for this sharing to be generative for practitioners, as well as a useful reference for neurodivergent people seeking therapy. However, as the journey of writing unfolded something different seemed to emerge. It became a dive into what happened in the therapeutic space, in the relational space, how ideas were experienced, taken up and what was created in the process. We have tried to keep this writing as honest and frank as possible- it is a conversation that unfolded through writing and we have left this conversation as raw as possible, only really editing for clarity. We hope you find some connection, resonance, thoughts, questions, or perhaps something else entirely!

Often I would offer Hannah an invitation in sessions (a preferred term for question, which has connotations of needing an answer and getting it right) and she would not have a verbal answer. But several days later she would share a response in the form of a poem. Hannah had not written poetry for many years. These poems were received as gifts; they helped both of us to step closer to Hannah’s felt or experienced landscape and make meaning in preferred ways. We have chosen to weave our discussions through these poems, and the form and structure we have used reflects how the poems were received and responded to.

Please note that when we refer to autistic/autistic person we don’t mean having a professional diagnosis of autism but anyone with a formal or self-diagnosis of autism.