Autism specific counselling

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Make no mistake I feel very very lucky to have never underwent any kind of behaviorism.

This is so dangerous in so many ways

Hi Steve: If you're still reading this thread at all, I've been in CBT (one type of therapy used for ASD people) for 4 months now and it's the first therapy I've had since I was in primary school where I finally feel I'm getting the tools that at least hopefully will help me turn my life around. I was only diagnosed 2 years ago, despite having test results from around the time I started primary school that (looking back at them today) show alot of the common symptoms of ASD and ADHD (which I was diagnosed w/4 years ago).

I didn't have much therapy in middle or secondary school, which in retrospect was a big mistake. I did in college, however, and then most of the last decade, so overall while I was in therapy alot, there were many long gap periods when I wasn't. Some of these therapists were much better than others, at least in helping me deal w/some of my symptoms, anxiety and such at least in the short term, though other therapists were pretty bad.

Writing at this moment, it's kind of hard for me to see the positive b/c I recently had a big setback in my social life that's really made me question if I've actually made any progress the last several months. But to at least try to be objective, I suppose the CBT (combined w/a support/social group I've been going to this year) has been helping. I have generally been better able to regulate my emotions, to identify both issues/problems I have in my thinking, social and emotional differences from NTs (I thankfully don't really have sensory issues) and also has helped me identify strengths I already have that are supposed to be the basis for coping strategies to manage my life. There is also a detailed problem solving method that is used to help you apply these coping strategies to various areas of your life that you may want/need to work on (work, home life, friendships, romantic relationships, education, etc). I haven't gotten to that yet but am optimistic it will unlock some of keys to dealing w/alot of my issues.

The CBT I'm getting also heavily emphasizes relaxation and mindfulness exercises in every therapy session which helps me relax, focus and sometimes gives me both a second physical, emotional and intellectual wind to looking at various areas of my life and to see the positive along w/the negative (and the in between). All of this has made me a big advocate of positive psychology (especially wen combined w/the right medications and social supports) of which CBT is one branch. I've been told DBT is similar, though I really know nothing about it.

Good luck w/your own counseling.

Just an update... I've been a few times to see the counsellor I contacted a couple of months ago.

Its been good. She has a good understanding of autism and how it affects people. She seems to get my point of view quite well. Her two children are autistic and she works as a counsellor at the local sixth form college where she see autistic students.

Seems positive.

That's excellent to hear, Steve, and I'm glad it's helping.

I've seen my assessment counselor a number of times but it's a three hour drive for me. I've also seen a PTSD counselor in my area and when I compare the two, I received much greater benefit from the autism specific counselor. As someone else mentioned previously, I had to explain numerous times the first few times I saw the PTSD counselor: "That's a characteristic common among autistics." In a later PTSD session, the counselor seemed to equate something I said as being because of my autism which made me think she studied up on it compared to when we were first having sessions.

With my autism specific counselor, she knew where I was going with many things I was telling her and no explanation was needed.