A Step Forward: Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice soon to be a requirement for all psychologists in Australia

In December 2025, the Psychology Board of Australia will implement a significant update to the core competencies required for general registration as a psychologist. These eight professional standards now include an explicit reference to neurodiversity-informed practice, a move that holds wide-reaching implications for neurodivergent people accessing therapy in Australia.

For the first time, psychologists are required to demonstrate an understanding of neurodiversity and to apply this knowledge in their practice where appropriate. This shift marks a formal recognition that affirming neurodivergent ways of being is not only clinically valid, but a necessary component of ethical, inclusive, and effective care.

What’s Changing in the Psychology Competency Standards?

The updated General Registration Competencies outline what psychologists must demonstrate in order to be registered to practise in Australia. They include critical areas such as ethical decision-making, reflective practice, and culturally safe work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Competency 7, which focuses on responsiveness to client diversity, now includes the following requirement:

“Understands neurodiversity, strengths-based, trauma-informed and positive approaches to supporting people with developmental disability. Demonstrates the ability to adapt psychological practice and make reasonable adjustments for people with disability, including understanding of alternative and augmentative communication.”

This addition means that all psychologists, regardless of their client group or area of expertise, are now expected to integrate neurodiversity-affirming principles into their work.

Why This Matters for Neurodivergent People

This update brings the profession into alignment with what many neurodivergent people have been requesting for years: access to therapy that does not seek to change who they are, but instead supports them in understanding themselves, navigating a complex world, and building lives that work for them.

A neurodiversity-informed approach recognises that neurotypes such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia are natural variations of human neurology, and not problems to be fixed. Rather than pathologising clients for being different, this approach focuses on identifying strengths, supporting needs, and validating lived experiences.

When psychologists work from this perspective, therapy becomes more accessible and effective. Clients are not asked to suppress or mask their neurotype, but are instead met with curiosity, respect, and understanding. This is especially important given the high rates of mental health concerns among neurodivergent populations, often stemming not from their neurodivergence itself, but from a lack of appropriate support and acceptance.

With this change to the national competencies, clients can now expect that any registered psychologist in Australia should have at least a foundational understanding of:

• Neurodiverse communication styles

• Sensory and cognitive differences

• The impacts of masking and camouflaging

• Strengths-based rather than deficit-based language

• Intersectional factors such as trauma, identity, and minority stress

  
  

What This Means for Psychologists

For psychologists, this change is a clear directive: affirming neurodivergent identities is now part of the minimum standard of care. Whether a psychologist primarily works in schools, hospitals, forensic services, or private practice, they are now professionally accountable for providing care that is informed by a neurodiversity framework.

This may require a shift in mindset and practice for some clinicians. For others, it reinforces the work they have already been doing. In either case, it highlights the importance of ongoing professional development in this area, particularly listening to and learning from neurodivergent people themselves.

Some useful places for psychologists to start or deepen their learning include:

• Reframing Autism – Training and resources by and for autistic people

• The Neurodivergent Woman podcast – Clinical and lived perspectives

• Yellow Ladybugs – Advocacy and insight from autistic girls, women and gender-diverse people

• Neurodivergent Insights – Psychoeducation resources for clinicians

  
  

What Clients Can Expect

If you’re neurodivergent and seeking therapy, this change supports your right to receive care that:

• Does not require you to mask or suppress your natural way of being

• Recognises the legitimacy and diversity of neurodivergent identities

• Respects your communication preferences and sensory needs

• Supports you in identifying your goals, not someone else’s idea of “normal”

  
  

You don’t need to justify your neurodivergence, explain your access needs in detail, or educate your therapist from scratch. The responsibility is now on psychologists to build their knowledge and work within this framework.

While not every psychologist will be an expert in neurodivergence, all must now provide a baseline standard of affirming, responsive care. If that’s not your experience, it is appropriate to provide feedback or seek a clinician who does focus in this area.

Looking Ahead

This update to the national competencies represents a meaningful step forward in mental health care in Australia. It moves us toward a future where neurodivergent people can access therapy that genuinely supports who they are, not who someone else thinks they should be.

For clients, it increases confidence in knowing that affirming care is not a niche or exception, but a professional standard.

For psychologists, it offers a clear path toward safer, more inclusive practice.

And for the broader community, it signals progress toward a more just and respectful understanding of human neurodiversity.

If you’re a neurodivergent person looking for support, or a psychologist aiming to deepen your skills, now is an excellent time to explore what neurodiversity-affirming practice looks like in action.