Autistic Justice Seeking in Therapy: Why Your Moral Clarity Isn't a Flaw
- Catherine Flynn
- Oct 23
- 6 min read
Neuroaffirmative therapy honours your autistic integrity instead of trying to fix it
I listened to the podcast today on Pillar nine of autistic culture – justice seeking. A quick definition being:
Noticing when things feel unfair, whether real or perceived
Feeling emotions rooted in care and empathy
Reflecting deeply instead of brushing it off
Wanting to bring balance, fairness, or positive change
My Earliest Memory of Justice Seeking
One of the questions that came up in the podcast chat was, what’s your earliest story of justice seeking. And as soon as the question was asked, this clear memory just popped into my mind.
I was around twelve years old. It was 1984 and I loved my English literature classes. The only thing was, my teacher often turned up late - he was a bit of a maverick. I remember once he took some of in his car to a field to talk about poetry, total Dead Poets Society! His left-field approach to teaching was something we all just accepted, and I loved it. But one day, while we were waiting outside the classroom for him to turn up, he just didn’t. I knew he was in, he was just bunking off. So what did I do? I left the other kids who were happy to have a free lesson, and made my way up to the staff room. I knocked on the door, walked in and saw him sitting there with the other teachers. And I said “Mr. ~~~, you’re supposed to be teaching us right now!” I seem to remember he was pretty pissed off with me and somehow found a way to tell me off for insolence.
I really see this story as part of my until-now hidden autistic history. It’s funny how that happens don’t you think. How even after a few years of late-diagnosed discovery every now and again another apple will fall from the tree!
I’d love to ask you the same question. What’s your earliest story of justice seeking? If we were in therapy together, we’d dive into this and explore what it means for you.
Justice Seeking in Everyday Life
Something that comes to mind for me that gets explored in the counselling room is how justice seeking turns up in the nuances of everyday life, and how it’s often the small every day stuff that forms the bread and butter of our conversations.
For instance, you might wonder why you’re so ‘fixated’ on insisting that your partner puts the teabags in the recycling bin rather than forgetting and putting them in the main bin. You may notice a part of you judging your annoyance, saying “what’s one teabag in the grand scheme of things”, but then you may notice another part of you experiencing the “moral clarity” of how all recyclable items should be recycled. I know it doesn’t really sound like a ‘fighting for justice moment’ but it truly is.
You are wanting to defend the world against it being injured by the teabag going into the wrong bin.
The autistic sense of justice isn’t always about dramatic activism, it’s often about holding the line on principles in micro-moments. What looks trivial to others is actually a deeply values-driven act, and this is where neuroaffirmative therapy can untangle this from your neuronormative parts.
Another example might be around struggling with the injustice of the overly weighted female mental load that (often) comes with being in a heterosexual relationship. You see the injustice of it and name it, and may struggle with the part that wants to be more laissez-fair while at the same time noticing the part that continuously struggles with the absolutely clear injustice of it all. This isn’t nit-picking — it’s the justice-seeking part of you that refuses to look away from imbalance.
It’s my job as your therapist to help you connect with how exhausting it can be to carry both awareness and the wish to sometimes let it go. I want to say to you, your clarity is not a flaw — it’s a sign of integrity.
You might also be thinking that the example above is something all of us feel regardless of our neurodivergence. And that is true to an extent. I just think that the justice-sensitivity aspect of being neurodivergent brings an added element which intensifies the experience of how the patriarchal imbalance that’s interwoven into heterosexual relationships exists.
So here are some other ‘hiding in plain sight’ justice sensitivities you might relate to in everyday life:
Wanting a conversation to be balanced so that everyone has their say
Connecting with people out at parties or gatherings who you may perceived as being overlooked
Talking to your cat about how they really should share their food equally with their cat sibling and not hit them with their paws
Getting intensely caught up in the injustices of playground play when your child reports the unfairness of what happened at school today
Putting effort into friendships and noticing that sometimes the effort-contribution isn’t as equal as you would expect it to be. And thinking a lot about it
When justice sensitivity becomes overwhelming
So now that we’ve spotted it, the question is what to do about justice-sensitivity when it becomes more of an issue that is getting in the way of a fulfilled life. There may be times when your justice-seeking leads you to take action and fight the good fight, and if that brings change then that can only be a good thing. But there may also be times when that sensitivity tips over into getting in the way.
A Therapeutic Approach to Justice Sensitivity
How do we deal with that in my therapy room? Here are some of the steps that come to mind:
Naming it. We noticing and bring into view the energy of justice sensitivity that hides in plain sight
We bring compassion to the part that feels that sensitivity
We acknowledge also the part that wants the justice sensitivity part to go away!
We respond to the pain of justice-seeking or sensitivity with curiosity. There are various ways to invite curiosity, but one of the phrases I find useful is asking the question “I wonder what good reason they may have for… “ e.g. putting teabag in bin/hitting their cat sibling/overly dominating a conversation”.
I also create a space in which we can nourish a wider view of the richness of human diversity in how people respond in the world. Our perceptions are so widely ranging.
Tackling the trickiness of perceived unfairness
One of the more tricky elements of justice-sensitivity comes in the form of ‘perceived injustice’ —those moments when it isn’t clear whether unfairness is really there or not. That uncertainty can be stressful. And this is where neuroaffirmative therapy can be so helpful – to disentangle the knots, bring in a sense of perspective and breathe some fresh air into the tangle. Just talking things through together can often ease the tension of it all.
Justice sensitivity is not a flaw — it’s a part of autistic culture, rooted in care and integrity. At times, it empowers us to bring change; at other times, it weighs heavily and needs compassion.
So I’ll leave you with some questions to share in the comments if you like:
Where does your justice sensitivity get in the way in your life, and what have you found helpful?
What’s your earliest story of justice seeking?
I’d like to dedicate this article to Victoria Woodhall, who I stumbled across after researching images to illustrate the word “justice”. As described in the Public Domain Review…
”She was the first woman to run for president. The first female stockbroker to open a brokerage house on Wall Street. The first person to publish Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto in the United States. And the first woman to address Congress and drive a motorcar through Hyde Park. She was a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. A champion of the International Workingmen’s Association. The founder of a feminist newspaper read by tens of thousands.”
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