Present in Programs, Absent in Research: A Scoping Review of Autistic Students in Counselor Education

Autistic (autism spectrum disorder; ASD) students are increasingly present in graduate education settings, including counselor education programs. Despite this growing representation, there is limited scholarly attention focused specifically on the experiences of autistic students within master’s-level counselor education and the perspectives of counselor educators who train and supervise them. Preliminary searches indicate that existing literature on this topic is sparse, fragmented, and dispersed across multiple disciplines. As a result, there is no consolidated synthesis of current knowledge, which limits the ability of counselor educators, training programs, and researchers to understand the scope of existing evidence and identify key gaps. A scoping review is appropriate for this emerging area of scholarship because it enables systematic mapping of the breadth and nature of available research without requiring the narrow focus or hypothesis-driven approach of a systematic review. The goal of this project is to clarify what is currently known, highlight areas of absence, and provide direction for future research and training practice.