Aspie counselors or psychotherapists

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Are there any of you guys on the spectrum either employed in or pursuing a career in counseling, therapy or suchlike? Is this a crazy idea? Anything relevant, please feel free to talk about it. Thanks.

I have no firsthand knowledge, but I have been told by one Mental Health worker that several professionals in that organization are convinced that one of their colleagues is an undiagnosed Aspie.

I think if that's a strong personal interest, there's no reason why one couldn't find a niche in that field. How effective an Aspergian counselor could be in ministering to the emotionally distraught is another question entirely. Not because we're incapable of empathy - I don't believe that, I think we just learn it more slowly - but because I think at any age we may be more likely to misread and misinterpret cues, thus might be less effective in reading a patient's more subtle tells exhibiting signs of their true emotional needs, as opposed to what they were stating on the surface. That could lead to inaccurate diagnoses and unnecessary treatments.

But I suppose after you've been around enough patients suffering from the same disorders, you'd come to recognize a lot of things you might not otherwise have noticed. I can't figure out how they get as much accurate information as they do from a Rorschach test.

A bit OT here, but I wonder if ASD to ASD non-verbal reading is as 'off' as ASD to NT von-verbal perceptions? I've never had a doctor who could read if I was depressed, no matter how bad it was. It would be interesting if ASD people are better at reading ASD expressions. I've only had one brief experience with that, but I could seem to see things that I didn't usually pick up on.

I'm definitely interested in psychiatry. I will probably pursue that path in undergraduate school.
I think I will be less effective in noting subtleties. I'll just have to learn the long and difficult way contrary to most in the field.

The Rorschach test is weird because there isn't a universal code for interpretation...by which I mean that there isn't a high level of inter-rater consistency.
Although it does seem to be helpful for detecting schizophrenia.

I did phone counselling, I found that i was at a disadvantage with some things, ie rapport building, I found it hard to say all the niceties that would make a person (ie NT) immediately warm to me. However i also found that having AS made me less judgemental of, say, people with mental illnesses as i have AS which makes me neurologically unusual. I also have an anxiety disorder. So, I am not sitting in an ivory tower talking down to people. I thnk if i was doing face to face counselling, my lack of proper body language and eye contact would be a major hurdle. If it wasnt for those thngs I would enjoy the work. but I am not really use in some types of situations, such as grief or trauma counselling, because I dont have that sort of cuddly empathy and i dont know what to say. I was lucky that i didnt get one of those clients.

Hey, thanks for your responses so far, everyone. I'm thinking that, like zen_mistress points out, there are strengths and weaknesses we bring, just like an NT would.

I am curious as to see what other people say as well. I went into psychology because at the time I did not understand I had AS and all I wanted to do at the time was figure out why people act the way they do, then potentially get into research. After graduating, I tried working at a group home with individuals with their own mental health issues and felt that nothing I could do no matter how I tried to sympathize with them would never work. I consider going back to graduate school for psychology but for right now am going to do some undergraduate work toward a degree in chemistry. Biopsychology in particular became an interest of mine because it was something that had a concrete basis, but there wasn't much I could do with an undergraduate in neuroscience except go on to graduate school.

i wonder if an aspie could be a great therapist to other aspies. it is precisely as Willard points out, that we may be unable to read the subtleties that i think this could be the case.

i am about to give up on my therapy because all it's doing is frustrating me and i feel defective because the questions make my head spin. i feel like i'm trying to teach my therapist how to work with me when what i need is someone to tell me how to work with myself.

what she's trained to do is pick out underlying emotional subtexts and she is clearly projecting things that aren't there.

so .. if you aren't projecting, maybe you would be more inclined toward seeing truths.