Therapeutic theory about autism was in the main created by non-autistic people but has influenced what support is offered. Most services have been designed by non-autistic people. Furthermore, therapists train in programmes with extremely limited attention to autism let alone wider neurodiversities. In traditional professional narratives, autism is often understood as a disability, a deficit or disorder within a person. The autistic person is not always seen as able, contributing and living an intersectional life with many parts to themselves.

The papers in this issue discuss examples of how services have developed that draw on the experience, expertise and leadership of autistic people. Writers re-imagine theory and practice to inform future service design. 

Most of these papers were initially shared at the 4th Autism and Systemic Practice Conference held online in July 2023. The questions addressed by conference participants included:

• What theories do therapists need to work with autistic people - when autistic people can be so different from each other?


• Which systemic ideas about context and identity could be useful?


• How should and could autistic people influence training programmes and service design?

This special issue is on the experiences of systemic practitioners who live with serious health conditions, life threatening or life shortening illnesses and how it affects their lives and practice.

Systemic practitioners have much to say about the intricate activities of their working relationships.  Every breath or intonation is a decision, infused with ethical, cultural, aesthetic and practical considerations. These papers show different forms of storytelling to engage readers in learning about the lives and practice of others and in reflexivity about their own practice.

Autism and Intersectionality: Implications for Systemic and Relational Psychotherapeutic Practice and Research

As we face both ecological and western social narrative collapse, this issue explores the forgotten ecological roots of systemic practice and shares ideas and experiences. Systemic psychotherapies now recognise the social issues of race, gender and the need for the decolonial turn, but the current ecological crisis also requires an urgent need to reimagine our relationship with the Earth itself. The ecosystemic return is an invitation to reclaim our relationship with subjugated Indigenous ecological wisdom and epistemologies to build a future based on both ecological and social justice.

The Pandemic as Systemic Flux writing project is part of a wider initiative by the Murmurations Journal of Transformative Systemic Practice to get the systemic community writing and reading things that feel directly connected to their practice. The Pandemic as Systemic Flux website systemicflux.com invited poetry, flash tales and papers for peer review on the systemic life and work during this pandemic era.