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Therapy or counselling for Aspergers adult - recommendations

NAS68947

Hi, my son has Aspergers, graduated this year and finding it very hard to look for work.  He's now become extremely depressed and we suspect has had this condition for about two years.  He wants to do some remote therapy or counselling but I just don't trust that IAPT will have anyone with autism specificity.

Is it ok to ask for personal recommendations, via PM if necessary?   I tend to look for reviews online but with the therapists that are coming up on the NAS services directory, I just can't get a feel for whether they are any good.  Don't want someone unscrupulous or incompetent to impact  the situation, my son is quite vulnerable.

Thanks

Parents

  • I've not had very good experiences with IAPT so I think you're wise to avoid them.  It's hard to find autism-friendly NHS services so I agree, it's a bit of a minefield finding therapists.  There's a Facebook group called "Counsellors working with neurodivergence" which I believe is compiling a list of practising members so it might be worth asking them.  Action for Aspergers seem reasonable too but your son would have to have a look at their website to get a feel for whether this might suit him.  Or maybe it'd be worthwhile him joining a couple of  decent FB groups in order to sound the ground himself?  Autism Inclusivity and Autism late diagnosis support and education" are two good ones, I think, but much of this will depend upon your son's individual preferences.  He might want to do some reading around first, in which case I'd suggest anything by Kieran Rose and the resources he lists on his Autistic Advocate website.  

    Overall I'd be keen to put more of the sifting and searching into your son's hands if possible (and with your support and consultation/guidance if needed) because any therapist would need to be a good fit for him individually and capable of forming a good therapeutic relationship with him.  I'm not sure that this would be very easy to gauge from recommendations from others but you should be able to see from their websites whether they're autism-friendly, esaily accessible, do online therapy if preferred and experienced in working with autistic adults.  Obviously it'd be great to see some reviews from other parents of autistic adults in order to help this process but this isn't something I've ever found on my own journey (late diagnosed autistic parent to 2 adult autistic sons, both of whom with significant issues relating to poor services we've desperately accessed in the past).

Reply

  • I've not had very good experiences with IAPT so I think you're wise to avoid them.  It's hard to find autism-friendly NHS services so I agree, it's a bit of a minefield finding therapists.  There's a Facebook group called "Counsellors working with neurodivergence" which I believe is compiling a list of practising members so it might be worth asking them.  Action for Aspergers seem reasonable too but your son would have to have a look at their website to get a feel for whether this might suit him.  Or maybe it'd be worthwhile him joining a couple of  decent FB groups in order to sound the ground himself?  Autism Inclusivity and Autism late diagnosis support and education" are two good ones, I think, but much of this will depend upon your son's individual preferences.  He might want to do some reading around first, in which case I'd suggest anything by Kieran Rose and the resources he lists on his Autistic Advocate website.  

    Overall I'd be keen to put more of the sifting and searching into your son's hands if possible (and with your support and consultation/guidance if needed) because any therapist would need to be a good fit for him individually and capable of forming a good therapeutic relationship with him.  I'm not sure that this would be very easy to gauge from recommendations from others but you should be able to see from their websites whether they're autism-friendly, esaily accessible, do online therapy if preferred and experienced in working with autistic adults.  Obviously it'd be great to see some reviews from other parents of autistic adults in order to help this process but this isn't something I've ever found on my own journey (late diagnosed autistic parent to 2 adult autistic sons, both of whom with significant issues relating to poor services we've desperately accessed in the past).

Children
  • in reply to Jenny Butterfly

    I've now visited Kieran Rose and thank you for putting us on to him.  What a breath of fresh air.  I love his understanding of autism.  That's how it looked to me as a parent, seeing my son grow up and how his mind worked.  I've never seen it properly reflected in the autism literature before.

    But I'm still looking for personal recommendations as to a practitioner who can be trusted to not be patronising/misinterpreting of the client based on their own failure to understand the austistic mind!  On the other hand I also agree with Aidie that having a job could make a lot of the feelings evaporate.