Epistemic Bias
Epistemic bias refers to mistaking personal improbability for objective impossibility. In traditional therapy, the therapist’s worldview—shaped by their temperament, privilege, neurotype, and life experiences—is treated as ‘neutral.’ When clients describe experiences outside that frame, therapists often assume these perceptions are distortions rather than differences.
For example, if an autistic woman describes being systematically disliked or excluded because of her neurodivergent communication style, a therapist without comparable experiences may dismiss this as unrealistic or paranoid—assuming the client is misreading social cues rather than accurately perceiving ableism. This is a form of epistemic bias—mistaking personal improbability for objective impossibility.