After 2 hour therapy with the whole family I was drained. I feel for these parents and their children. I am grateful they trustfully discuss very private issues related to the family life with autism.  I am proud of my therapeutic skills and capability to create a caring warm atmosphere. How vulnerable their life is, how difficult is to create intimacy and how challenging is to maintain the family life similar to life of the typical family. No psychotherapist or counselor who didn’t experience intensive interactions and relationships with an autistic child can understand. It’s extremely difficult to tune to the core issues. I appreciate all my experience in one-on-one with children. I am able to incorporate it in counseling and psychotherapy.

“… The study had 238 autism families and 38 Asperger`s Syndrome families in Japan. The study found that while both groups of parents were stressed, more parents of children with Asperger`s Syndrome (67%) were highly stressed than were parents of children with autism (57%). The study found that the parent’s stress was not related to the child’s IQ. The increased stress in parents of children with Asperger`s Syndrome was believed to be due to a longer process and therefore delay in diagnosis as well as fewer support options” read more

http://autism.healingthresholds.com/therapy/family-therapy

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) & Autism

Because children and adolescents with autism lack social skills and do not understand many of the unwritten rules of social life, they have difficulty developing and maintaining friendships. They may face challenges because of their difficulty learning conventional social and work-related behaviors. When parents and family members provide a predictable and safe environment the family dynamic can be positively improved. CBT helps children and adolescents with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndorme deal with specific emotional difficulties. It can teach social skills, self-monitoring, stress-management, relaxation, and alternate inappropriate behaviours. This group of children and adolescents is at high risk for depression, anxiety, and suicide. They seem more sensitive and they have more emotional outbursts. Sometime parents don’t notice symptoms of depression and anxiety, but they may see changes in behaviours common to the child related to them. It may be an increase in frequency, severity, duration or even the new behaviours may occur. CBT is very effective when it’s tailored to the child’s needs and current problem.

Areas where CBT may be helpful

• Routines and expectations, changes and surprises

• Time alone to relax

• Social skills – how to begin, maintain and end conversations, facial expressions, body language, personal space

• Anger management skills

• Cause-and-effect concepts

• Appropriate replacement behaviors

• Social settings and social interactions

• Reminders and cues to prompt social skills

• Understand humor

• Understand language and requests

• Getting attention and talking to others, checking for understanding

• Social groups and  *technology to develop decrease social impairment

• Parents coping with the child’s limitations;  obsessive talks about special interests

• Increase child’s understanding of friendship

• Situations that show child’s strengths rather than weaknesses

*Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen & colleagues: Mind Reading: An interactive Guide to Emotions presents human emotions in different categories with facial and vocal expression