The experiences of disabled people suggest that ableism insidiously and invasively impacts upon the practice of counselling and related therapies. This article critiques a particular account of psychotherapy with a child with the label of autism to illustrate how ableism can disrupt the process of empathy and negate the therapeutic experience. In…

The paper describes the conclusive phase of the psychotherapy of a young man who suffered from Asperger's syndrome. The patient had been referred as an adolescent, at which time he was very isolated and spent most of his life in the company of countless imaginary friends that were quasi-delusional constructs. After several years of therapy, the…

This paper describes the first two years of intensive psychotherapy with a six-year-old boy diagnosed with autism. I explore the many ways in which he retreated from reality, most frequently by taking refuge inside the maternal body or flying off into an imaginary space world. He fragmented his identity and that of his objects by using the…