Neurodivergent therapy?

Thank you. That link is useful.

Us. Any one whose neurology is not typical. Autism, dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia, torettes... there are others.

Our thinking is different, hence neurotypical therapies don't work for us.

So do I. I would never consider therapy again unless the therapist were themselves neurodivergent.

Sadly, the NHS pretends it's ok to give us what NTs get with a few adaptations. Sadly, they've no idea how to adapt.

We need seperate sevices run by other autistic people.

I have also found CBT, and indeed all therapy for NTs, totally useless for all the reasons you guys mention above.

Autonomistic said:

I've been through the standard CBT therapy in the past and like you say it's ineffective. It works on the premise that the thinking is faulty and the fears are irrational. However the autistic way of thinking is not faulty but different. The fears are not irrational if they are based upon something that has happened before and is very likely to happen again in the feared situation.

Exactly. I completely agree with you. The foundation of CBT is that your thought patterns need to change because they are irrational, the onus is on you entirely instead of your environment and other external factors. CBT (traditional) is not suited to autistic thinking and does not take into account that the brain tries to protect itself from feared situations. From example our sensory experiences are different and therefore we may avoid certain situations to keep us safe and well regulated.

Another thought, usually our social anxiety is based on a lack of connection, misunderstandings, isolation, overstimulating environments, unpredictable humans/expectations or sometimes previous bullying. This means our anxiety is well founded and based on our reality, which another autistic therapist would understand much better than a non autistic therapist. Given that the majority of the time we autistics are a minority in a social situation and communicate differently to NTs why wouldn’t we be anxious?

I don't think it exists unless you're able to pay privately. Autistic people are being failed and discriminated against by the NHS in my view. If non autistic people can access therapy on the NHS, which helps them, then we should be able to do the same.

I've been through the standard CBT therapy in the past and like you say it's ineffective. It works on the premise that the thinking is faulty and the fears are irrational. However the autistic way of thinking is not faulty but different. The fears are not irrational if they are based upon something that has happened before and is very likely to happen again in the feared situation.

When I received my (NHS funded) autism diagnosis they recommended that I should have specialist autism centred therapy for my anxiety. However my efforts to access such therapy have failed and I am just told that it is not available in my area. My GP tried applying for funding to access it but the applications were rejected by the local CCG 

Hello there is an association of neurodivergent therapists, here is the link to the website:

https://neurodivergenttherapists.com/

NAS73488 said:

I've had therapy and counselling a few times in my life for social anxiety, but it's ineffective because they're trained to councel neurotypicals

I  definitely understand what you mean, it is much more useful to talk to other autistics about our experiences because they just ‘get it’.  I have had similar experiences and the reason why it didn’t work is because my needs weren’t understood in the context of being autistic. My anxiety was not disordered or in need of treatment it was a result of being in an environment that was not autistic friendly. Hopefully though you will be able to make a connection with an autistic therapist.

Being autistic is the very core of who we are, so I definitely understand what you mean.

 We need to be supported by our own community so that we don’t have to explain our neurology.

It’s so important to have an autistic counsellor because they will hopefully be able to relate better. I feel the same way too.

There is another website ‘Autistic Mental Health’

https://autisticmentalhealth.uk/

This website is useful and provides resources for autistic people seeking counselling.

 I hope this helps.

what is a neurodivergent mean 

My son is autistic and after years of seeking help he was offered group therapy which is CBT and DBT based. However he refused to attend. So we will never know if it works or not. People have told me that the only way that kind of thing works is if the recipient is 100% on board and willing to ‘do the homework’. So I expect it wouldn’t have worked in my son’s case. Many people have told me that CBT is not suitable for autistics. 

This is what pisses me off massively about the bargain basement approach taken to depression and anxiety when one asks for help… namely, stuff an SSRI down their throat, give them six hours of CBT Pollyanna lessons and chuck ‘em back to the coal face. CBT is fashionable because it’s good for metrics. But it’s just like the typical IT service desk that’s obsessed with closing tickets asap rather than actually making sure the problem is solved.