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Autism research: success and wellness

Alongside being a mental health therapist in private practice and a data analyst at a management consultancy, I am currently working on a PhD thesis in autism studies at Sheffield Hallam. My academic project evaluates how much an autistic person's own understanding of autism influences their life outcomes. The academic supervisors are Dr Luke Beardon and Dr Stephen Connolly.

A lot of the themes addressed in the study are reflective of the concerns my therapy clients bring to sessions, for example exploring autistic identity, deciding on the weight of formal assessment and taking control of their own path in life.

Why do some autistic people thrive and others struggle?

I investigate this important question in the doctoral thesis. The title of the project is “Autistic heterogeneity: uncovering stories of success and wellness. A mixed method study.” The study explores autistic people’s individual definition of success and how it compares to broad societal expectations. The project evaluates the role an autistic person’s own understanding of autism, as well as the environment, plays in their life outcomes such as wellbeing, relationships and employment.


The aim of the research is to provide robust evidence of autistic thriving in challenge to the pathologising perspective of the dominant medical model.


Both statistical and thematic analysis will be employed to derive insight from data, collected through surveys and interviews. Autistic participants will be co-researchers, shaping a part of the project. This is a purposeful study design element to reflect the importance of just knowledge production.​

Self-view and autistic wellbeing

What strikes me often in the therapy room is how closely one’s self-view appears to influence their success in life. And I mean success in a broad sense here, very much combining both the person’s own definition of success and widely-accepted life outcome markers such as educational level, financial situation, quality of relationships and so on.

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As I continue to work with autistic adults the contrast between the common view on autistic experience and the reality of many of my clients’ lives becomes more and more stark. For example, the frequently-quoted figure of only 30% of autistic people being in employment (the Buckland Review, Department for Work and Pensions, 2024), and the story that surrounds it, that autistic people need to be supported in order to work, that society owes them kindness (Kittay, 2011)…

 

This doesn’t reconcile with the examples of autistic people I know with high professional status, often fulfilled and excelling in their work. Power dynamics and social structure create a different dimension of understanding of what is going on here (Grinker, 2020). Who does the narrative of autism as a deficit actually serve? Maybe not the autistic people.

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Academic studies about autistic joy and the role of self-view in autistic wellbeing are recent and few in number. There are a lot of papers on poor physical and mental health, on higher rates of suicidality…all the scary things. The tragedy narrative persists (Chapman & Carel, 2022). And it is a slow ship to turn around.

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Anticipated outcome

Of course, I hope that my hypothesis of a relationship between an autistic person's definition of autism and their life outcomes is supported by the evidence. But I also must face the reality of complexity involved here. It is perhaps far more likely that the relationship exists but its significance overall is low because of many other factors influencing how one gets on. ​It would be preemptive to make a grand claim about contribution to knowledge. So I'll just leave it at the hope.

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References:

Department for Work and Pensions. (2024). The Buckland Review of Autism Employment: Report and recommendations. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment-report-and-recommendations

Kittay, E.F. (2011), The Ethics of Care, Dependence, and Disability. Ratio Juris, 24: 49-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9337.2010.00473.x

Grinker, R. R. (2020). Autism, "stigma," disability: A shifting historical terrain. Current Anthropology, 61(S21), S55–S67. https://doi.org/10.1086/705748

Chapman, R., & Carel, H. (2022). Neurodiversity, epistemic injustice, and the good human life. Journal of Social Philosophy, 53(4), 614–631. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12456

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Last updated: 21.06.26

Cite this page: Brooke, L. (2026). Autism research: success and wellness. Towards Meaning Counselling. https://www.towardsmeaningcounselling.co.uk/autism-research

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