Seeking referral

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Hi, I'm new here. I really need help. Can anyone reccommend a therapist who knows about Asperger's? I in Orange County, NY. I am willing to drive even to NYC for the right professional. I am 47 years old, and have terrible social skills, and a crappy job, but I have medical insurance. PLEASE HELP! Thanks. 45Sarah45.

Welcome to WrongPlanet, and welcome to my time warp.

This looks like the best place to start asking for assistance in your area. You can also try meetup.com -- there may very well be Autistic support groups in your area, and by networking with parents of Autistic children, and other adults who are on the spectrum, you may get your best leads. But try contacting these people?? They were one of the first hits on Google, and there's an email address provided. Maybe its a coordinator of this Autism symposium. I'm sure they should help you and would know the legit professionals in your area.

Orange County NY DD Connection
A Central Point of Information
The community's resource for news, information, activities, and events, pertaining to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, educators, providers, and the Orange County Community. Orange County Department of Mental Health's Developmental Disability Division is responsible for planning, development and coordination of services to support people of all ages with developmental disabilities and their families. The division provides advocacy, mediation, information, outreach, education and training; it also manages the central point of access to services and supports delivered through The Developmental Disabilities Provider Network.
The provider network is comprised of not-for profit agencies, state and county government all working collaboratively to provide diverse, high quality services
http://www.orangecountynyddconnection.com/

November 14th 2009
Autism in Orange County
A Symposium and Exposition for our Community
Please contact Heather Rajnert
at 845-291-2609 or [email protected]
for further information
http://www.orangecountynyddconnection.c ... osium.html



Your county offers all the bells and whistles. Their website is dedicated primarily to Autism from the looks of it.

Welcome to WP

Last edited by AspieForty on 10 May 2010, 8:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Greetings, and welcome to the Wrong Planet neighborhood, 45Sarah45. You may want to check the phone book for the location of your nearest "Mental Health Services" and see if they can lend you a helping hand. Look in the government pages under "County Government." If they don't have a therapist there who knows anything about AS, perhaps they can give you a referral to one who does. All the WP best to you!

If you're willing to go to NYC:
http://grasp.org/res_di.htm

In the NYC area
We’ve been sending people without regret to Dr. Richard Perry (212.595.0116) for years. Dr. Perry was featured in the now-famous NYTimes Sunday Magazine article from the summer of 2000 called, The Little Professor Syndrome, an article that (pretty much accurately) convinced thousands of tri-state area residents that they had AS, and to seek diagnosis to make certain.

Lynda Geller, PhD, is someone GRASP has worked with since our inception. She has a distinguished history with the Cody Center, SUNY, NYU, and Asperger Foundation International.
At present she is the:
Director of the Institute for Cognitive Diversity
Bank Street College of Education
19 W 34th Street, Penthouse
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 718-406-3848

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Excellentomundo.

Hello 45sarah45,

I can't help you, but welcome,

I wish you good luck!

Enjoy your stay on the Wrong Planet!

Welcome to Wrong Planet

Are there any colleges/universities in your area?
Even if you're not a student there, they should have a health services building with a mental health department that's open to the public. That's where I went first. University health centers are cheaper, and easier to make an appointment (they're big, used to dealing with tons of people, etc).
They might even be qualified to give you an official evaluation and diagnosis, but if not, places like this are great at referrals. They can point you in the right direction.

I still haven't gotten an official diagnosis, but a therapist at the university in my town made up a list of qualified specialists in the area. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to find someone who's qualified in ASD diagnosis, let alone one who works with adults (which is important, children present differently). If you go to any old therapist or neurologist, they might not be qualified, and they probably won't be a specialist.

If that doesn't work, then I'd suggest calling your local hospital. They'll have a neuro-psychological unit, and they can do the same thing as a university. If they can't diagnose you (I know my local hospital doesn't, I've tried them), they can also do up a list of specialists in the area for you.

If you're not looking for diagnosis, just therapy and support, then most therapists will do even if they're not specialists. Specialists help, but they're often expensive and not always covered by insurance. I'm currently seeing a non-specialist (a trainee at that!) and he's wonderful. Even if he doesn't know much about Asperger's, he's very calming and good at giving advice and perspective.

Good luck I hope things work out for you!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!