Educational and reflective resource. You can use this resource independently or discuss it with a practitioner. It does not provide an individual assessment or establish a therapy relationship.
- For
- Anyone disabled or living with a disability or long-term condition, choosing a therapist
- Time
- About 5 minutes; pick two or three questions
- Format
- Question list
- Prints
- Yes, as the whole page
- Evidence
- This site’s guidance
Questions to ask
before you start.
Whether you’re disabled, living with a disability or long-term condition, or not sure which words fit you, finding a therapist who can work with your body, your mind and your access needs can feel like a job in itself. These questions are here to make it a little easier, and to help you notice how someone responds as much as what they say.
You don’t need to ask them all. Pick the two or three that matter most.
What does access
mean for you?
Access goes beyond physical barriers. It includes attitudes, practices and whether someone understands how disability and mental health intersect. It can help to have a rough sense of what matters most to you before you start searching.
- Physical access: accessible parking, step-free entry, lifts, suitable seating.
- Communication: closed captions in online sessions, or experience working with speech devices or AAC.
- Specialist understanding: familiarity with chronic illness, neurodivergence, trauma-informed practice, disability-related grief, advocacy or systemic barriers.
If you don’t know yet, that’s a workable starting point too. Sometimes all that’s clear is that the usual way of doing therapy doesn’t fit, and that can be worked out as you go.
Finding people
worth asking.
For the UK and Ireland. An honest note first: we haven’t found a directory here that reliably filters for disability experience. Most let therapists tick “disability” or “chronic illness” as an interest, and many tick lots of boxes. Use a tick as a reason to ask, not as an answer.
Professional body directories. These show that a therapist is a member and follows a code of ethics. In the UK: BACP and UKCP, or the HCPC register for psychologists. In Ireland: IACP and IAHIP, or the PSI for psychologists. Search by your area or for online work, then use the questions below.
Wider directories. Counselling Directory (UK) and Psychology Today (UK and Ireland) let you search by issue, including chronic illness and chronic pain. Psychology Today also lists therapists who work in sign language. Search options change, so check what each site offers.
Free or lower-cost routes. In England, you can refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies, and the deaf charity SignHealth runs them in British Sign Language. In Ireland, adults with a medical card can get free counselling through the HSE’s Counselling in Primary Care, with a referral from a GP or another health professional. Many charities, including some condition-specific ones, offer low-cost counselling.
Online therapy. Working online removes many physical and transport barriers and lets you choose from a much wider area. If you go this way, ask about the platform itself: captions, screen reader compatibility, and video adjustments for visual impairments.
What to ask,
and why it helps.
A first conversation is a chance for you to assess the therapist as much as the other way round. Asking early also means access doesn’t depend on explaining and justifying it later.
Do they know this territory?
You’re looking for real familiarity, and for someone who can say honestly where their experience runs out.
- “What experience do you have working with disabled people, or people living with a disability or long-term condition?”
- “How do you address unconscious bias in your practice?”
- “Are you familiar with advocacy or systems of support for disabled people?”
- “How do you make room for what’s going well, and for my strengths, not only the difficulties?”
Can therapy be shaped around how you actually work?
Vague answers such as “yes, we’re accessible” are worth gently pressing on. Concrete detail is a good sign.
- “What accommodations can you provide to make therapy accessible for me?”
- “Could you tell me specifically what’s accessible here, rather than just that it is?”
- “Are you flexible about pacing, camera use, communication method and session length?”
- “If an accommodation stops working, how do we change it?”
Can you sustain it?
Accessibility includes affordability and a schedule that fits a body that isn’t always predictable.
- “Do you offer reduced rates, and do you work with any funding, such as an employer scheme, a charity or health insurance?”
- “How does your cancellation policy work if my condition fluctuates?”
- “Can sessions be by video, audio only or in writing?”
Free or lower-cost routes exist too: see Where to look above.
What happens if they get it wrong?
Every therapist misreads something eventually. What matters is whether disagreement can become useful information.
- “If I tell you an interpretation doesn’t match my experience, what happens next?”
- “How do you tell the difference between something psychological and something physical or environmental?”
What to notice,
beyond the words.
You’re paying attention not only to the answers but to how willing the therapist is to have the conversation at all.
Encouraging signs
- They’re open, curious and non-defensive.
- They give concrete detail about access.
- They take your account of your own body seriously.
- They can say what they don’t know.
Worth pausing over
- They minimise your experience or needs.
- They ask you to prove or justify an adjustment first.
- Answers stay vague or become defensive.
- You leave feeling you’ve had to educate them from scratch.
Ticking every box
isn’t the same as fit.
A therapist may check everything on paper and still not feel right. Therapy relies on a strong connection and mutual trust, so your own sense of whether someone genuinely understands and supports you counts as evidence.
Advocating for yourself can feel intimidating, especially if you’ve met dismissive attitudes before. Therapy is meant to be collaborative. You deserve someone who respects and accommodates you, and it’s reasonable to keep looking if they don’t.
Need help finding the words? The Self-Advocacy Script Library has language for requesting accommodations and saying “that doesn’t work for me.”
Where to go
from here.
Accessibility & Therapy
What can actually be adapted in sessions here, stated plainly.
When Disability Gets Misread as Psychology
The pattern behind feeling misunderstood in therapy, and how repair can work.
Accessibility in Psychotherapy Practice
The ten dimensions a service can be measured against.
Resources for Disabled People
The full section on getting ready for therapy.
You’re allowed to ask questions before you commit.
Access should make therapy more usable, not another test to pass. Asking is allowed, and so is choosing someone else.
Where this comes from
- Drawing on disabled clients’ accounts, the authors recommend that therapists ask about access routinely, treat clients as experts on their own bodies, and offer flexible scheduling.
Conner, K. J., et al. (2023). Psychotherapy experiences of U.S. adults with physical disabilities: Recommendations for affirmative practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 51(7), 970–1004. doi.org/10.1177/00110000231186824 - Disabled adults described gaps in providers’ disability knowledge, and access barriers, in mental health care.
Wang, K., et al. (2024). Ableism in mental healthcare settings: A qualitative study among U.S. adults with disabilities. SSM – Qualitative Research in Health, 6, 100498. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100498
The questions themselves are this site’s own guidance. They haven’t been tested.
Last reviewed: October 2026.
How to cite this page: Donaghey, C. (2026). Questions to Ask Before You Start. Disability in Psychotherapy. Available at: https://disabilityinpsychotherapy.online/for-disabled-people/questions-to-ask-before-you-start/ (Accessed: [date]).
Shared under CC BY-NC 4.0, with extra permissions for teaching, supervision and therapy. Credit the site. See Reusing This Material.