The Disabled Therapist
a teaching sheet.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the session, participants should be able to:

• Describe how visible disability disrupts the fantasy of the neutral therapist.
• Identify barriers disabled trainees and therapists report, and resources they bring.
• Plan supervision and programme changes that go beyond accommodation.

Before the session

• Participants need: no prior reading. The session works for trainees, supervisors and programme staff together.
• You need: this sheet. The Disabled Therapist Identity page has more depth if you want it.
• Preparation time: about 45 minutes the first time. Find out what your programme’s guidance says about disclosure, adjustments on placement and contingency planning.
• Materials: the case, the model conversation and the worksheet below, shared in advance in accessible formats.

A note for facilitators. Some participants may be disabled therapists or trainees. Nobody should be expected to use their own experience as teaching material.

Key ideas

• A visibly disabled therapist is never a neutral, unmarked presence; clients may form impressions before a word is spoken.
• Counsellors with visual disabilities built trusting relationships and worked effectively in the here and now (Sakız et al., 2020).
• Disabled trainee clinical psychologists have described their experiences of training in doctoral research (Coop, 2018).
• Counselling trainees benefit from personal narratives and service learning in disability training (Rivas & Hill, 2018).
• A 2025 MSc study with four visibly disabled therapists in Ireland recommends compulsory disability modules, supervision that addresses visibility and disclosure, and structural rather than token inclusion (Donaghey & O’Connor, 2025).

Full background: Disabled Therapist Identity.

A session plan

A suggested 90-minute outline, including a short break. Adapt timings to your group.

• Opening (10 minutes): ask the group when they last saw a disabled therapist in a case study, training video or textbook.
• Input (25 minutes): the key ideas above.
• Break (5 minutes): a planned break. Also say at the start that people can take a break or step out whenever they need to.
• Activity (30 minutes): the case below, in small groups.
• Discussion (15 minutes): the questions below.
• Close (5 minutes): one change each person will try in practice.

Activity: The supervision conversation

Fictional teaching example

Gráinne, a second-year trainee who uses crutches, has a client who keeps asking about her disability. Her supervisor suggests she “keep the focus on the client”. In groups: consider what this advice protects and what it misses; then redesign the supervision conversation.

Worked example: a supervision conversation

A model conversation, written for teaching. Gráinne and her client are fictional; the client’s background here is invented for the example.

Facilitator commentary. “Keep the focus on the client” protects the client’s space, but it leaves Gráinne managing alone. It treats the questions as noise rather than material, and it misses access altogether. The model conversation does six things: it asks what happens and how often; asks how it affects Gráinne; separates what is visible from what she chooses to say; holds the client’s meaning as a hypothesis; gives her a response she can use; and puts practical access back with the institution.

Visibility is not disclosure. A visible impairment is seen. What the therapist says about it, and when, is still their choice.

Who is responsible for what:

Contingency planning is for everyone. Every therapist needs a plan for illness or unexpected absence, such as who contacts clients and who covers. Disabled therapists may need individual arrangements on top of that, not a separate standard.

Facilitator notes: likely answers

What good looks like

A good redesigned supervision conversation:

• asks what is actually happening, and how often;
• asks how it affects the trainee;
• leaves disclosure as the trainee’s choice;
• treats the client’s meaning as a hypothesis;
• offers a usable response or boundary;
• names anything the placement or programme needs to act on.

Discussion questions

• Where does your programme frame disability only as an accommodation question?
• How are disabled trainees involved in shaping the programme?
• How should supervision approach disclosure, visibility and fatigue?
• What contingency planning would a disabled therapist need, and who should own it?

Work here, pause, change direction

Difficult moments

Short responses for moments that often come up in this kind of session.

Don’t ask disabled participants to argue for whether their own access needs are legitimate.

Common misunderstandings

• “Disability makes a therapist more empathic.” It may, but presenting it as automatic becomes another pressure.
• “Disabled trainees need lower standards.” No: the essential competencies stay the same. What can change is the usual way of showing them, and sometimes a standard’s wording turns out to assume one kind of body.
• “If the disability is visible, it’s already disclosed.” Being seen isn’t the same as choosing what to say.

After the session

• Follow-up: supervisors and programme staff check their guidance on disclosure, contingency planning and adjustments on placement against the table above.
• Review: at the next staff or supervisors’ meeting, ask “What did we find? Who has agreed to change what?”

Running the session accessibly

• Share materials in advance, in accessible formats, and use captions for any video.
• Build in breaks, and allow people to take part by speaking, writing or listening.
• Assume some participants are disabled. Don’t ask anyone to disclose, or to speak for disabled people as a group.
• Agree how personal material will be handled before the activity.