Therapists specialising in autism?

[londonsquirrel]

I had therapy about 5 years ago, which was very helpful at the time to understand myself better and figure out the boundaries. It was CBT with occasional other flavours.

I am not back to the same therapist with anxiety / panic attacks and I now find CBT not helpful at all. I have only recently realised how life-long masking and putting my feelings away affects me. CBT with the thought challenges just feels invalidating - I am shoving my feelings under the carpet again and it just hurts.

I would like to find a therapist that specialises in autism / ND. Any recommendations? Or at least where to start?

I wonder whether you necessarily need someone specialised in ND or just someone who isn’t CBT. What you say makes perfect sense and you could ask in initial sessions whether the therapist would help you explore your experience and emotions around this.

I would start by searching the BACP directory, you can put key words into the search tool to find therapists specialising in autism. www.bacp.co.uk/search/Therapists.

I am autistic and before my diagnosis I had quite a lot of therapy which was helpful but wasn't with a specialist counsellor. I think I needed a different approach but I didn't know I was autistic at the time and my counsellors didn't pick up on anything either. I will probably look for specialist counselling in the future too.

Wishing you all the best with your search.

@Mmmhotchocolate - if you don’t mind sharing, what specifically did you find helpful with the specialist counsellor?