Invisible Barriers: Therapy Can Reinforce or Resist Ableism

This manuscript explores how therapeutic practices can either unintentionally reinforce ableism or actively resist it—depending on the clinician’s language, assumptions, and approach to disability. Drawing from both professional training and lived experience as a lifelong wheelchair user, Andrew Horman examines how diagnostic bias, disability spread, and systemic invalidation shape the mental health outcomes of disabled clients.

The piece offers trauma-informed strategies for affirming disabled identities in session and documentation, reframing disability as a cultural and systemic experience rather than a deficit. It highlights the psychological toll of being overlooked and calls for inclusive, dignity-centered care that validates disabled clients’ autonomy, resilience, and complexity.

This manuscript is currently under editorial consideration for publication in a peer-reviewed counseling journal. A link or full-text version will be made available here once publication or public access is permitted.