Work as a counselor

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Having been underemployed and underpayed for all of my adult life,
I am thinking about going back to school, earning a masters degree in transpersonal psychology, and becoming a certified counselor.

There appear to be at least some aspies here who work professionally in psychology.

What skills can aspies develop that make them good counselors?
What are some of the unique challanges?

To answer both of the above; EMPATHY.

But, do not let that discourage you in the least, because your inherant insight could put you way ahead in the field.

Truly, I think a vast number of people with ASD's have a great deal of empathy if the situation is understood. Perhaps empathy it is not always shown in Neurotypical terms.

Good luck!

You have to have a Master's degree to be a counselor. My social worker was 28 when he got his Bachelor's degree, and 34 when he got his Master's. It takes time. There is no hurry at all.

However, I am happy that you are studying to be a counselor. You must like to help people. I think that is a good quality in you. Good luck with continuing your studies.

the AS lack of empathy thing works well in counselling, as it gets rid of what is called "personal affect", where a counsellor can feel/become personally affected by the client. the theory of mind thing can make things more difficult, as one has to understand what the client is saying from his/her point of view. having said which, i've had fewer problems with the latter than might be expected.

it also depends on what type of counselling you're thinking of training for, irishmic. have a good look round and see what feels right for you.

and good luck

I agree completly with what vetivert said. I also think sometimes that my emotional detachment is a good thing in therapy sessions. In addition to AS people, I work with alot of teens and young women with Borderline Personality Disorder. This is a clientelle that many therapist try to avoid because they can be emotionally draining, however, for whatever reason I am able to deal calmly with their high levels of affective activation and am mostly immune to their "manipulation" (please note that I have placed "manipulation" in quotes as I object much of the way it is used to describe client's behavior, however, that is another thread all together)

I want to thank all of you who responded or planned to respond.

As to being sensitive to others.
Yes, definately, at least I try, but like other Aspies, I sometimes come up with
interesting, and divergent responses to other peoples behaviour.
This makes the problem of empathy an intriquing one.

In fact, yesterday, I got into a discussion with an NT friend on the theory of Extreme maleness, and what it meant to respond emotively. I had to admit that if all I had was a behavioral context, it would be extremely difficult for me to identify the socially appropriate response behavior.

As far as area of specialty, I want to study integral psychology
Then use integral technigues to develop new theories and practical applications
for effective counseling of Autistics and those who interact with them.

I already possess some rather interesting ideas.

If you get a job in psychology you will be underemployed and underpaid.
I have a PhD and can't accomplish the networking that would allow me to at least avoid underemploymnet.
If you get a Master's degree you can avoid being underpaid and possibly also avoid being underemployed.
With a PhD you are given prestige as part payment for your training. You also compete with a bazillion others who want the prestige and a part of the small amount of funds people are willing to devote to their psychological health and well being.
I am not being bitter. This is the reality. Psychology is as much about marketing as it is about helping people.
I am still hoping to be a psychologist (sort of can't call myself one without a license); getting diagnosed with aspergers actually has given me hope that I can do it, and that it is not that I am a constitutional f---up.

The easiest thing for me is working with people who try to push my buttons. I don't really have any (at least not that they'd try to push), so I get to have a truly honest conversation with them and I get to say things like, "I know you are trying to communicate with me by your behavior but I really don't understand. Can you use words to tell me?"

The hardest thing is working with colleagues who think you have to be mentally ret*d and flap your hands to have aspergers. This makes them deny that anything is wrong with me. Therefore all my behavior is purposeful and intentional so I really mean to hurt their feelings. They cannot fathom that I am unaware of what I have done.

Go figure.

Lots of love.

Sounds like the women in my life.
Hey excuse me, the answers yes, but can you ask me directly cause I'm not NT enough to catch your body language with any kind of consistentcy.

Oh, well I didn't know that you were ret*d, in that case never mind.