Wibbly-Wobbly Ramblings

[Image description: a screenshot of the Facebook profile of a man named Dan L. Edmunds. His bio states that he is an associate psychologist, self advocate, international speaker and author, philosopher, and activist. It shows that he studied community counseling at Argosy University-Sarasota. Above his profile picture is a quote of his that reads: “In my work with autistic persons and those with developmental differences, I have always believed that those persons DO communicate, though it may be in a way apart from others, and that we must focus on innate strengths. Our objective should never be to force them to be something that they are not but to respectfully guide them to be able to navigate through the mainstream.”]

AUTISTICS BEWARE! THERE IS A PSYCHIATRIC PREDATOR IN AUTISM SPACES ON FACEBOOK!

This man is allistic and has been inserting himself into Autistic communities all over facebook. He leads others to believe that he is Autistic, but he is not. I was under the impression that he was Autistic up until I saw him called out by another person. He is a skilled manipulator with all the red flags of a predator and an abuser. THIS MAN WORKS WITH CHILDREN. He writes poetry and other literature from the point of Autistic people, even though he is not. He talks endlessly about his work with people of differing neurodivergencies that when looked at through the perspective that he is Autistic seem wonderful, but when realized that he is not seem condescending, fetishizing, demeaning, ableist, and downright gross. He sees himself as an “Autism-whisperer” (quote of mine, not his).

When someone likes something of his on Facebook and he sees that they are young and perceives them to be female, he friends them immediately. This happened to me as well as many other young woman and people he perceived to be women. Occasionally he will comment on their pictures or statuses with compliments about their looks. This man is far older than would make this appropriate.

Many people, like myself, assumed him to be Autistic because of his writing from the perspective of an Autistic person, his blunt affect in his pictures, and doing things otherwise socially inappropriate (re: friending young women/people he perceives to be women and complimenting them on their appearances). However, when asked if he is Autistic or when anything he says or does is called into question he reacts by not being straightforward, attempting to confuse the person, using vague terms and confusing metaphors (something that many Autistics like myself have trouble with), gaslighting, accusing them being uncooperative, and belittling them.

When I found out he was not Autistic, I felt physically ill because I, as many others had, been taken in by this predator. I confronted him over Facebook and these were his responses (under the cut as this is rather long):

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Dr. Dan Edmunds is a psychotherapist in Pennsylvania whose work focuses, among a few other things, on the autism spectrum. He is highly praised for his approach to dealing with autistic patients, which involves a “drug-free, relational approach.”

What you see here is the same Dan Edmunds inserting himself, unwelcome, into a facebook group known as Autistico, which is intended to be a safe, autistics-only space. While many of us are trying to have him swiftly removed from the group, the fact remains that Edmunds has blatantly disrespected and disregarded the feelings of the people he claims to support. Many of his posts come off as condescending, inappropriate, or occasionally fetishistic- especially when he speaks praise of himself for helping a non-verbal boy learn to speak to him.

In a world where it is already often so difficult to find a good therapist, I shudder to think of the damage a man who is praised and well-known for his practices could do when he is so clearly uncaring about the actual feelings of his patients. If you think this guy is a gross as I do, please spread this shit like wildfire so we can try to bring some attention to this guy’s horrible behavior. 

EDIT: There isn’t a screenshot unfortunately, but apparently the situation escalated on one of the posts and he said something to the effect that we’re “all a bunch of [R-slur]’s who need to learn their place” 

Some of my colleagues in FB groups have had many many many interactions with him. There have been even times when he has plagiarized autistic people, and then become harassing when called out on it.