Counselling- worth it or damaging if not done with a counsellor who understands autism?

For most of my life as an unidentified Autistic person therapy of any kind did me no harm, but then it also did me zero good.  Then there was community mental health services - massive harm.  Totally gas-lighting and barking up the wrong tree.  But then they did have a misdiagnosis made with out protocol on file that they didn't think to share with me. No wonder I never understood what they were talking about. Ombudsman found in my favour on that one!

Since my diagnosis, I have encountered people who are either Autistic themselves or have spent most of their career studying Autism.  Hurrah! Finally talking to people, who don't misunderstand everything and recognise the massive cognitive differences of the Autistic brain.

I would just make clear to them that you are Autistic, ask what their experience of neurodivergence is, and give them a list of adjustments you think would help.  

Basically in the main, therapies for NTs are pretty useless to us, but if they can adapt it can work.

For most of my life as an unidentified Autistic person therapy of any kind did me no harm, but then it also did me zero good.  Then there was community mental health services - massive harm.  Totally gas-lighting and barking up the wrong tree.  But then they did have a misdiagnosis made with out protocol on file that they didn't think to share with me. No wonder I never understood what they were talking about. Ombudsman found in my favour on that one!

Since my diagnosis, I have encountered people who are either Autistic themselves or have spent most of their career studying Autism.  Hurrah! Finally talking to people, who don't misunderstand everything and recognise the massive cognitive differences of the Autistic brain.

I would just make clear to them that you are Autistic, ask what their experience of neurodivergence is, and give them a list of adjustments you think would help.  

Basically in the main, therapies for NTs are pretty useless to us, but if they can adapt it can work.

Thank you for sharing you experience and your advice. I have had a negative experience with community mental health teams also. I was advised to ring 111 mental health when I was really struggling at one time and when I stated I believed I might be autistic (prior to my diagnosis -while I was waiting for my assessment) they laughed at me. When I explained some aspect of autism that meant I'd find it hard to get to the emergency appointment they wanted to make for me ( in 2 hours time, in a place I've never been to before, a fair distance away and I explained that I didn't feel safe to drive to due to at that time being in an extremely distressed state and totally alone) they said I obviously didn't want the help they were offering and put the phone down on me. It really put me off being open with anyone and reaching out again. I believe so many mental health people are so poorly trained in autism that they fail to be understanding and adaptive to accommodate the experience of autistic people. This is why I wanted to start this thread to understand my experiences.