Counseling/Therapy with Aspies?

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First, if there is a better place for this thread, please let me know. I'm posting here because I'm asking in the interest of my Aspie boyfriend.

Not surprisingly, he is profoundly affected by stress and struggles with depression. When I have asked him about his options for learning new coping mechanisms, he is basically at a loss.

Have any of you worked with a counselor or a behavioral therapist to help you gain some new or better coping mechanisms? Has anyone gone through counseling with a partner?

For the record, I want to make it clear I'm not AT ALL trying to "fix" anything, or trying to "get rid of" my bf's Asperger's. I would just love to hear what you've found successful, if anything.

I was taken to many, many different psych docs and therapists as a child and teen. I also went for about a year several years ago, to deal with depression and qualify for Medicaid. None of the therapy helped me, although I know it does sometimes help others. My depression several years ago was already getting better without any help from the therapist due to an improvement in my financial situation, and an improvement in my living situation, but I stuck with it until I qualified for Medicaid. I have other health issues that are much more troubling to me than me depression was, but the state assistance office didn't take those seriously, only the depression problem. So, I had to use that to get into the system. It's a stupid way to do stuff. I never liked any of the psych docs or therapists. I always resented their intrusive questions, and their attitude, which was shared by my parents, and teachers, that I was defective, and needed to be fixed, to conform to the herd. They also felt I wasn't cooperating with the treatments. Well, yes I am defective, but what I have isn't fixable--it was not a matter of fighting the treatment--how do you fix something that can't be fixed? I resented being blamed for not being fixed. No one was willing to accept the reality of my condition and see what could be done within the framework of that reality. They preferred trying to force me to become "normal". Over several decades I have managed to come up with coping methods to help me deal with the NT world. My system isn't perfect, but it does help some, and doesn't put me in the stressful position of trying to attain the unattainable goal of "normal".

No two people are alike. Some people are helped by therapy. I hope your husband is one of them. Do give it a try. I think it is worth trying if he hasn't done it before. My older brother is helped by Aleve for his back pain. It doesn't do a thing for my knee pain. I do get some help for my knees from glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM/Hyluronic Acid supplements, but my older sister tried it for her bad hips and got no help from it. Different people will often get different results--even within the same family! So your husband has nothing to lose by giving therapy a try, just because it didn't help me.