Resources for
therapists.
New here? A first practice point from each approach →
Psychotherapy is not culturally neutral. Therapists carry assumptions about independence, movement, productivity and what “progress” looks like — often without noticing. These resources move from idea to actual clinical behaviour.
Find a resource by task.
Seeing a disabled client soon?
Start with the 20-minute route, then Accessible Intake & Consent and the Reasonable Adjustments Guide.
Assessment & intake
The therapeutic relationship
Methods & interventions
Supervision & reflection
The checklists and reflection tools here are this site’s own, for reflection and supervision. They are not validated clinical assessment instruments.
Mine, Yours, Ours, System.
Before formulating a client’s distress as personal, check where it actually sits. This is the single tool most worth bringing into supervision and case notes — with a diagram, a worked vignette, and a printable formulation sheet you can fill in after a session.
Use the formulation tool →One worked example of
how this works.
The “hero” archetype
Disabled people praised for extraordinary resilience.
A question to sit with
When do I reward a client for coping, rather than make room for exhaustion?
What actually changes
Notice praise that quietly expects resilience — and ask what it costs the client to meet it.
Checklists
and guides.
Clinical ableism checklist
Ways disability gets treated as pathology or resistance.
02Diagnostic overshadowing guide
Recognising when a symptom is explained away by an old diagnosis.
03Disability-model summary
A one-page comparison, written for clinical use.
04Reflecting on independence
Where “independence” quietly becomes the unexamined goal.
05Accessible intake & consent
Practical adjustments to first-contact paperwork.
06Working with carers
Where a carer’s presence supports autonomy — or erodes it.
07Reasonable adjustments guide
Flexible scheduling and sensory adjustment in ordinary practice.
08Reflection sheets & supervision questions
Five printable sheets for reflection and supervision, with Word downloads.
09For referrers and services
Before you refer, and making a therapy service accessible.
Being seen
before being heard.
A visible disability changes the therapeutic relationship before either person speaks. Disclosure, projection, professional legitimacy, training access, and fatigue all belong here — alongside the clinical value of lived disability experience.
“Where do I locate vulnerability, dependence and mortality in myself?”
Resources for disabled therapists →Depending on what
you’re actually looking for.
Therapy Access Agreement
An agreement to fill in with clients as part of contracting, so access sits alongside confidentiality, fees and cancellations. It answers the question of whether adjustments weaken the therapy frame, and covers repair when an agreed arrangement goes wrong, cancellation policies for fluctuating conditions, and offering it to every client rather than only those who disclose.
Open the agreement →Does this weaken the frame?Download as Word
Start here in 20 minutes
Three steps from idea to practice, using one real client in mind.
- Read (5 minutes). The “Before interpreting” section of When Disability Gets Misread as Psychology: body, environment, person, relationship, then interpretation.
- Check (10 minutes). Work through the Clinical Ableism Checklist for one client. Note one honest “no”.
- Take it to supervision (5 minutes to prepare). Fill in the Mine, Yours, Ours, System worksheet for that client and bring it to your next supervision.
Reflective note
Date, and what I read:
One thing I’ll do differently:
How I’ll know it made a difference to the client:
To keep a copy, use your browser’s print option and choose “Save as PDF”. A note like this may help with your own CPD records.
Checking your practice or service
How accessible is the way you work?
Working on your own? Start with the ten-point self-audit.
Part of a team or service? The Service Accessibility Audit and Action Plan covers the whole client journey, across the full range of disabilities, and ends with a prioritised plan.
What I wish non-disabled therapists understood
Disability is not automatically the source of someone’s emotional difficulties, nor is it irrelevant to them. Sometimes disability is central to a person’s experience, and sometimes it is simply one part of a much bigger life. Understanding the difference requires curiosity rather than assumptions.
Casey Donaghey is the psychotherapist behind this site and lives with cerebral palsy.
Five sources that underpin the resources in this section:
- Olkin, R. (1999). What Psychotherapists Should Know About Disability. Guilford Press. The foundational clinical guide to disability-affirmative therapy.
- Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of Ableism: The Production of Disability and Abledness. Palgrave Macmillan. Ableism as a system, not only individual prejudice.
- Reiss, S., Levitan, G. W., & Szyszko, J. (1982). Emotional disturbance and mental retardation: Diagnostic overshadowing. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86(6), 567–574. Where diagnostic overshadowing was first described. The title uses the language of its time.
- Shakespeare, T. (2014). Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited (2nd ed.). Routledge. A critical look at the social model, and at impairment as well as barriers.
- Conner, K. J., Acosta, V. M., Nouri, R., Tyler von Wrangel, M., Gramillo, E., & Conner, A. (2023). Psychotherapy experiences of U.S. adults with physical disabilities: Recommendations for affirmative practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 51(7), 970–1004. doi:10.1177/00110000231186824 What disabled clients say about therapy.
For every source cited on the site, see Sources and Bibliography.
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Working something out with a disabled client?
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