The (Dissertation) End is Nigh!

I sent my dissertation off to the editor for the final edits! Once that’s done (which should be in a week or so) I’ll be scheduling a defense.

For those who aren’t familiar with the dissertation process, when I defend my dissertation, I present my findings to a group of professors and experts. They then question me and verify that my work is accurate and contributes something new to the literature and to the understanding of clinical theory.

My dissertation brings together two of my interests: neurospicy women and tabletop gaming. In it, I review the challenges that women have in getting an autism diagnosis or the path to self-identifying as autistic. I also look at tabletop role-playing (TTRPG) games and how we can use those in therapy. Then I look into how we can combine them and use TTRPGs to help late-diagnosed and self-identifying autistic women.

Through this blog, I’ll share more details of some of the theories that I found through my dissertation, as well as some of the rabbit holes that I went down that didn’t make it into the dissertation!

Here’s the unedited abstract (summary of the paper).

Autistic women are often marginalized by the medical and social systems. The modern diagnostic view of autism is male-focused. As a result, many autistic women are misdiagnosed or are diagnosed late in life. The challenges of not being diagnosed or not understanding oneself as autistic can cause autistic women challenges related to fitting in with general society. This camouflaging can result in a distorted view of self, anxiety, depression, and other challenges with mental health. This dissertation proposes using Tabletop Role-playing Games (TTRPGs) as a therapeutic framework to support self-expression and identity development in late-diagnosed and self-identifying autistic women. Using an alchemical hermeneutic methodology from a feminist lens, I analyzed data from autistic individuals and gamers, including literature, YouTube videos, blogs, and Reddit threads, focusing on content created by women. From this data, five themes emerged: challenges with day-to-day experiences, identity discovery, women's gaming experiences, identity in gaming, and TTRPGs as therapeutic tools. Drawing on depth psychology, play therapy, narrative therapy, and drama therapy, I propose incorporating TTRPGs into group interventions. Clinical implications highlight the need for clinician competence in therapeutic practice, gaming culture, intentional group composition, and structured safety tools. TTRPGs offer a framework for addressing identity development, social skills, and anxiety and depression reduction in autistic women.