‘... there’s so much within the work that we do where all we kind of need is the space and the safety’: The experiences of Australian practitioners who support autistic survivors of sexual and domestic violence

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Fox, J., Carroll, J. A., & Death, J. (2025). ‘... there’s so much within the work that we do where all we kind of need is the space and the safety’: The experiences of Australian practitioners who support autistic survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Autism, 29(10), 2524-2534. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613251344425

Journal or book title
Autism
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
29
Issue
10
Pages
2524-2534
Publication date: 24 May 2025 Added to AutiHub: 27 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Jessica Fox *
  2. Julie-Anne Carroll
  3. Jodi Death

Abstract

Research has found that autistic women experience elevated rates of sexual and domestic violence and may benefit from accessing support to recover. This study aimed to explore the experiences of Australian practitioners and the approaches they use to support the recovery needs of autistic women who are survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 Australian practitioners to capture their experiences of supporting autistic women who are survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Data from these interviews were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis, which generated four themes about participants’ experiences in supporting autistic survivors: (1) unburdening the processing load of understanding violence and trauma, (2) understanding support and recovery needs as interconnected, (3) lived experience as a therapeutic tool, and (4) the challenges of practicing within unaffirming and invalidating systems. The findings illustrate how Australian practitioners help autistic survivors by accommodating their recovery support needs, and the systematic and structural issues that create barriers to recovery for autistic survivors while putting additional strain on the practitioners who support them. The findings also highlight practice implications around how supporting autistic survivors with interoceptive awareness and understanding their needs within relationships is beneficial to their recovery. Lay Abstract Research has commonly found that autistic women are more likely than autistic men and non-autistic women to be harmed in their sexual and romantic relationships and may need support in healing from the impacts of these experiences. In this study, we wanted to find out more from the people who provide this support to autistic women. We asked 14 Australian practitioners about what they do to support autistic women who have experienced these types of harm in their relationships, and what makes this harder or easier for them to do. We then analysed the common patterns (themes) in what these practitioners said. From this we found that Australian practitioners often help autistic women to heal by providing a safe and supportive space to process their experiences and recover from what has happened to them. We also found that an important part of the support that practitioners provide autistic survivors is helping them to understand their experiences of violence and build awareness of feelings in their body (interoception). The practitioners in this study also talked about how the autistic women that they support often have bad experiences when getting help from support services and systems that commonly do not meet their needs. This often makes it harder for practitioners to help autistic women heal and a lot of them suggested that services could be made better by learning more about autistic people’s different support needs and how to accommodate these.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 3 Oct 2026 08:20.

Cited references
55
With a DOI
53
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
2
22 / 55 (40.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 55 (3.6%)
References with detected author names
53 / 55 (96.4%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
2
References with raw author names still to review
2
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
163
From DOI or external metadata
163
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
5
104 / 163 (63.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 59 / 163 (36.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
41 / 163 (25.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 41 / 104 (39.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 21 / 129 (16.3%).
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