When Therapy Misreads Neurodivergent People (Half an audio essay)When Therapy Misreads Neurodivergent People (Half an audio essay)
Eggshell Transformations with Imi Lo
Imi Lo reflects on how traditional therapy can misinterpret neurodivergent clients, drawing on Karl Popper’s critique of psychoanalysis and everyday examples from clinical work. She argues for holding interpretations lightly and encourages clients to trust their own sense of what fits their experience.
10:23•24 May 2026
When Therapy Gets Neurodivergent People Wrong
Episode Overview
- Therapeutic interpretations should be treated as theories or possibilities, not as unquestionable facts.
- Karl Popper’s critique highlights how some psychoanalytic frameworks can explain everything and therefore risk explaining nothing.
- Neurodivergent clients may have their accurate self-reports misread as defence, denial or resistance within traditional psychodynamic models.
- Many classic psychological theories were developed using largely neurotypical populations and have not been fully revisited in light of modern knowledge about neurodevelopmental differences.
- The most helpful outcome of therapy or coaching is a client’s confidence to weigh interpretations, keeping what fits and discarding what does not.
“No reading of a person, offered or received, should be mistaken for hard fact.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? Here, the focus shifts to another kind of mismatch: when therapy misreads neurodivergent people. Imi Lo shares a reflective audio essay on the limits of interpretation in therapy, especially for clients whose brains work differently.
Drawing on philosopher Karl Popper, she explains how some psychodynamic traditions can end up a bit like astrology: “no reading of a person, offered or received, should be mistaken for hard fact.” When every behaviour can be explained by a theory, nothing the client says can really challenge it. Imi walks through everyday examples. A client says they’re sad, and a therapist insists the sadness hides anger. If the client says “no”, that’s framed as denial.
If they insist again, it becomes “resistance”. For neurodivergent people, this pattern can be doubly tricky. An autistic person who takes a partner’s words literally, or an ADHD client who simply forgets an appointment, may be accurately describing their experience rather than defending against hidden meanings. She notes that many classic psychological theories were built with mostly neurotypical clients in mind, yet they’re often applied as if they fit everyone.
Training programmes haven’t fully caught up with what’s now known about autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental differences. Imi isn’t out to trash psychoanalysis. She stresses her appreciation for the unconscious and symbolic life, and frames therapy as a practice of interpretation that can still be hugely helpful. The key, she suggests, is holding interpretations lightly, as possibilities rather than facts.
For anyone who has felt “misread” in therapy, this piece offers a calm, thoughtful reminder: the most valuable thing any helping relationship can offer is the confidence to weigh an interpretation, keep what fits, and gently set aside what doesn’t. How might that change the way you relate to your own therapist—or to yourself?
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