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CBT

Alex1685

Hello, 

My daughter, who is 10, has been diagnosed this week with autism. We were expecting it and so no surprise and we now have the clarity we needed. CBT has been recommended. Can anyone share their child's experience of CBT? My daughter has high anxiety and this manifests in two areas, medical and overthinking at night leading to insomnia. My research on CBT shows it to be helpful but when I have read real people's stories on here I have found it has not been helpful. 

Any advice is appreciated, thank you. 

Parents

  • Hi, I had CBT (though) at an older age and I didn’t find it helpful. The CBT course I did was very standardised and it just didn’t do anything for me (it was so overly simplified and some of the thinking patterns they tried to teach like problem solving were just so super obvious and it just didn’t work for me). I’ve had really bad experiences with therapy in general. 1.5 years ago my university offered to fund some sessions with a therapist who is autistic himself and mainly works with neurodivergent individuals- it’s not CBT and I reluctantly decided to give therapy another chance and this is the first time that I feel that it’s actually useful and I still occasionally talk to the counsellor. It makes a huge difference that he’s autistic himself so I just don’t have to explain so many things and I feel much more understood. He also works with autistic children to support them. I would listen to what your daughter says- therapy can be helpful but it can also be harmful and if it doesn’t feel right it’s safer to stop. If it is an option financially, maybe you could also consider looking for someone who has specific experience working with neurodivergent children and/or who is neurodivergent himself. 

Reply

  • Hi, I had CBT (though) at an older age and I didn’t find it helpful. The CBT course I did was very standardised and it just didn’t do anything for me (it was so overly simplified and some of the thinking patterns they tried to teach like problem solving were just so super obvious and it just didn’t work for me). I’ve had really bad experiences with therapy in general. 1.5 years ago my university offered to fund some sessions with a therapist who is autistic himself and mainly works with neurodivergent individuals- it’s not CBT and I reluctantly decided to give therapy another chance and this is the first time that I feel that it’s actually useful and I still occasionally talk to the counsellor. It makes a huge difference that he’s autistic himself so I just don’t have to explain so many things and I feel much more understood. He also works with autistic children to support them. I would listen to what your daughter says- therapy can be helpful but it can also be harmful and if it doesn’t feel right it’s safer to stop. If it is an option financially, maybe you could also consider looking for someone who has specific experience working with neurodivergent children and/or who is neurodivergent himself. 

Children
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