Listening to Parents, Listening to Myself: A Systemic Encounter with Autism, Emotion, and Family Legacy

Abstract

This paper explores the complex emotional and cultural terrain navigated by 28 parents of children diagnosed with autism or ADHD, weaving their narratives with the author’s lived experience as both a systemic practitioner and mother. Through reflective group sessions and therapeutic tools such as board games and genograms, parents found space to externalise blame, rediscover agency, and build supportive community. The research challenges conventional clinical models by centring parental emotion, trauma, and intergenerational legacy, offering a re-humanised lens for practitioners, educators, and policy makers. It calls for a shift from diagnosing dysfunction to understanding systemic patterns, advocating for empathy-led practice that listens not only to the child, but to the stories that surround them.