CBT experience went really bad :-(

thanks DormouseAtRest_25 as a health care professional myself too I hold my hand up and acknowledge that there's a world of difference between doing the training and putting it into practice.. and indications are that my autistic profile has me thorough, dependable and a reasonably responsible person... 

I have to consider that given the communication problems and the high importance of experience for learning realistically the people to treat autistic people best may well be autistic people themselves... 

The dual empathy problem is possibly too great to overcome given the lack of effort and time that seems to be available in many settings?

Or maybe I'm just seeing the glass nearly empty...  

Something NAS produced with this audience in mind:

s2.chorus-mk.thirdlight.com/.../NAS-Good-Practice-Guide-A4.pdf

This could turn out to be "CBT experience went really well ... in the end".

Do a bit of prep before your meeting using the information in those links that Iain posted on the other thread (CBT vs. Autisitc-friendly CBT). And send those links on to them, so they can prep, too.

Yep you sum it up well Damojo  Having to ensure reasonable adjustments are made all right as long as one is not too stressed and anxious to start with!  All good practice :-)

Sounds good! That'll be your chance to explain how important it is that your appointment/invite is sent out well in advance, so you can prepare mentally and feel relaxed at the start of the session. That just a small and reasonable accommodation that they should be able to make for you.

Quick update

A call from the manager at my request - they will arrange for me to see the person who trains the therapists about how to work with autistic people.

Will see how that goes and update as able.

Thanks Iain  A conversation with the manager has pointed out their failings in communication and also laid it on about the way this sort of thing messes about autistic people.

Yes bang out of order.

Will take on board the other suggestions too.

Phased said:

Eventually in the meeting I asked the therapist whether they had sent invite to someone else.

I'll go out on a limb here and say I was a bit surprised you took this angle rather than thinking they were disorganised and only sent it at the last minute. Their response at being accused is understandable in todays litigious culture - they were effectively protecting themselves legally.

It is bad form on their part to be so poor at organising it for you and if they know autists then they should know most of us need some predictability to feel regulated so this is bang out of order.

My approach would be to accept them as human, being capable of failing and point out the stress that the last minute nature of the booking caused me. I would ask them how they could address this in future and, if they did it again, then I would verbally ask them to explain themselves in light of their previous promise.

It is tricky go let it go and accept they are probably as imperfect as me but in different ways, but to set boundaries and not to be afraid to give them grief if they breach these boundaries.

That would be my approach anyway - we are all different and this may not work for you.

Thanks Damojo 

It sounds like it wasn't love at first sight! Don't sweat it. Nobody died (as I used to tell my kids after each driving lesson).

If they have escalated this to their manager, that's not really a big deal. You'll either get a chance to explain how you were a bit fixated on the invite before the session even started, or they'll just put it down to a miscommunication and drop it.