Neurodiversity-Affirming Practices in Music Therapy: 3 Things to Know
The helping professions, including the field of music therapy, are experiencing a much-needed shift. As our collective understanding of neurodiversity evolves, we are being called to refine our practices - not just to support neurodivergent youth, but to partner with them in ways that affirm their identities, honor their autonomy, and build authentic therapeutic relationships.
For seasoned music therapists, this shift may feel both affirming and disorienting. We’ve long been advocates for inclusive, client-centered care. But neurodiversity-affirming practice asks us to go deeper: to examine our assumptions, adjust the environment, and view each client as the expert on their own lived experience.
Here are three insights to help you align your clinical work with neurodiversity-affirming principles, while staying grounded in the heart of what makes music therapy powerful.
1. Partnering as a Mirror, Advocate, and Scaffold for Autonomy
Music therapists are uniquely positioned to offer something deeply valuable: opportunities for self-actualization. Through music and our therapeutic relationships, we can empower neurodivergent youth to explore their passions, develop self-knowledge, and build the confidence to communicate their needs and boundaries.
In this role, we become both advocates and scaffolds—trusted adults who reflect a client’s worth back to them while helping them build bridges of communication and understanding with their families and their peers. We can use music to hold space for our clients’ strengths and their challenges, affirming their individual identities without overlooking their struggles or reinforcing patterns that may be harmful to themselves or others. In our spaces, they should feel free to be, not feel that they must be corrected.
2. Environment Is Everything
One of the most impactful ways to affirm neurodiversity is by shaping a space that respects the individual’s sensory profile. This includes not only the physical setup—lighting, textures, temperature, seating, clutter, and sound—but also our presence: tone of voice, appearance, scent, and energy.
Taking the time to assess and adjust the environment signals deep respect. It tells the client, I see you. I want you to feel safe here. Offering fidgets, weighted items, or calming visual elements can transform a session from tolerable to liberating.
Accessible, sensory-considerate environments aren’t just clinically smart, they’re profoundly humane.
3. Modeling and Fostering Curiosity About Lived Experience
Much of what we’ve been taught about neurodivergence has come from neurotypical researchers. While that landscape is shifting, thanks in part to social media platforms that give neurodivergent youth and adults space to share their lived experiences, the opportunity to revisit and reframe our clinical perspectives is still very present.
A neurodiversity-affirming approach flips the script from focusing on compliance to seeking connection. It values curiosity for a client’s way of being, openness to their unique responses, and a willingness to learn from their perspective.
This curiosity can extend inward, too. It means asking: “What assumptions shape my view of this behavior? What meaning might this action hold for the client? Is this “disruption” regulation, or an unmet need?”
For example, stimming—often misunderstood—is a form of sensory regulation and not something that needs to be eliminated. Similarly, differences in communication and social interaction may not reflect deficits, but rather alternative ways of relating and expressing.
Through this lens, behaviors become meaningful, and the therapeutic space becomes one where neurodivergent youth can experience safety, understanding, and room to be fully themselves.
Ready to Dive Deeper?
Explore our self-paced course, Authentically Supporting Autustic Youth, which offers research-informed strategies, perspectives from neurodivergent advocates, and tools to build trust and autonomy in your sessions.
🧠 What’s inside:
Up-to-date, research-informed approaches
Perspectives from neurodivergent professionals and self-advocates
Case examples and clinical strategies
Tools for writing affirming goals and building trust
6 CMTEs for MTBCs - fulfilling CBMT’s ethics requirements
6 PD hours for educators and related professionals
Whether you're refining your language, expanding your toolbox, or questioning old habits, this course gives you a strong, supportive place to grow.