Grantee spotlight: Improving mental healthcare for autistic people

Finding a therapist who understands autism can be a challenge for many autistic people. Too often, mental health professionals receive little training in autism, leaving autistic clients feeling misunderstood or unsupported.

That’s what inspired researcher and newest Autism Speaks Predoctoral Fellowship for Autistic Scientists recipient Elizabeth Kilgallon to focus her work on improving mental healthcare for autistic people. Working alongside autistic adults, Elizabeth is seeking to understand gaps in care and develop a training program that helps therapists better serve their autistic clients.

In this grantee spotlight, she shares what led her to this work, why participatory research matters and the impact she hopes her project will have for autistic people and their families.

What are you focusing on in your research?

My research project aims to improve mental healthcare for autistic people by helping therapists better understand autism and provide more supportive, neurodiversity-informed care. Many autistic adults struggle to find therapy that meets their needs, in part because clinicians have very little training in autism and may rely on deficit-focused views or perspectives based in stereotypes.

To address this, I will work with a participatory group of autistic adults who have been therapy clients. Participatory means that autistic people are actively involved as partners in the research.

With the participatory group’s input, I will hold focus groups with clinicians to understand the problem. Then, we will design a training program for therapists that teaches practical skills for building strong relationships with autistic clients and adapting therapy to meet their needs. I will then test whether this training helps therapists feel more confident, knowledgeable, and better able to support autistic clients.

What inspired you to pursue this area of study?

My interest in this area comes from my own lived experience as a long-term therapy client. Through that experience, I have developed a strong sense of what feels helpful, harmful and missing in mental healthcare, particularly for autistic people.

This experience led me to choose my master’s thesis topic, where I studied autistic adults’ experiences in therapy to better understand these patterns more systematically. I did this with a qualitative meta-analysis, where I looked across many research studies and identified common patterns. That work then inspired the current project, which moves beyond identifying problems to actively working toward solutions.

I am especially committed to using a participatory approach because I know my experiences are not representative of the full diversity of the autistic community. As someone with privilege, I see it as essential to center a range of autistic voices, especially those who are often underrepresented and left out, so that this work reflects broader community priorities, not just my own perspective.

What impact do you hope your work will have for autistic people and their families?

I hope my work helps make mental healthcare more accessible and effective for autistic people. By training therapists to better understand autism and provide neurodiversity-affirming care, I hope more autistic people can find therapy that feels safe, validating and actually helpful. I also hope this work reduces the harm that many autistic people have experienced in therapy by shifting away from deficit-based or stigmatizing approaches.

I also want to acknowledge that the challenges autistic people face in mental healthcare are part of a much larger systemic issue, and this project alone will not solve that. However, even one positive experience with a therapist who truly understands autism, validates their autistic clients’ experiences and is responsive to their needs can make a meaningful difference. It can build trust, create a sense of safety and give autistic people hope in mental healthcare, making them more likely to seek support in the future, even within systems that can be difficult to navigate. I hope this project helps increase the chances of those kinds of experiences.

For families, I hope this means their autistic loved ones have better access to therapists who understand and support them, leading to improved well-being and more positive experiences with mental healthcare overall.