Please share good stories of counselors, etc.

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We’ve recently have had two posts critical of psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, etc. And that side needs to be told, and I have made criticisms of my own.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt151294.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt151283.html

All the same, for balance, for fairness, and most of all for open avenues and open possibilities, I ask fellow members to share positive experiences as examples of the way things should be. (and share what you are comfortable sharing and use pseudonyms or partial names such as *Robert or Dr. N. as you think best)

Well, this is purely from a "MOM" point of view, so I don't know how much it counts.

This Fall we started taking my son to a new ADD specialist. His approach is to find the right meds, but also to make sure there's counseling for the patient at the same time. My son's counselor, Jane, is absolutely fantastic. My son talks with Jane and opens up to her in ways he could never open up to me. She has this fantastic way of making these counseling sessions more conversational in tone, and as a patient, you are very relaxed with her. Somehow, she gets right to the issue. I also have sessions with Jane, and I come out of there totally energized and ready to take on challenges.

I look forward to future sessions for my son with Jane, as she will work on conversation skills and social skills that wouldn't work if I tried to work on these things on my own with my son. I HIGHLY recommend this kind of approach for ADD.

My therapist is excellent.

The psychologist who diagnosed myself and my son is excellent. He was the first non-parent that asked our son why he felt he had difficulty with his schoolwork, in a very non-judgmental way. Then he explained to him why he was having difficulty i.e. you learn like this, they teach like this.
He has been a wonderful resource as we have advocated for resources and accommodations with our son's school; it's like having a coach in the background and it has been very effective. We know he is busy, but he never seems to be too busy to hear our concerns and offer advice. He has a real heart for people with ASD's and works to help improve understanding and acceptance.

Just talking to a counsellor helped me develop communication skills and insight into myself that I may not have the opportunity to do elsewhere because I would usually have avoided that sort of attention. Also, counsellors have helped me with practical matters like getting a job and getting disability payment.

I managed to cope with my issues fairly well. I knew I was different, but I didn't realize how different. I like being different and since I can mostly fit in, people just take the rest of my personality as eccentric.

And then everything escalated last year. Added stress at work, trying to go back to school and marital issues. Things just started spiraling for me. So I started seeing a therapist. I have only had a few sessions. And then New Year's Eve I had a severe meltdown. I didn't know what it was. I'm not even sure what made me start looking closer at Asperger's. Within a week I was looking for someone to give me an evaluation.

There are two people in town qualified to evaluate for Asperger's and one of them happened to be at the facility where I was already seeing a therapist.

I met her for an initial interview. She agreed that I qualified for a full evaluation. We checked my insurance and the tests were covered. I had 4 tests - took the entire afternoon. I just met with her to review her initial report. Before she got too involved explaining the report, she cut to the important stuff - she thought I had Asperger's, but on the mild end. She explained the tests. She explained her scoring. She allowed me to disagree and clarify and ask questions. She said she's going to make a few adjustments based on our talk. I should get that final report next week.

So far, I'm very pleased with my experience. I live in the Southeast US. If anyone wants to talk about it, PM me.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.

My guy is good. He really has never had an Aspergers person before but his wife (also a PsyD) specializes in ASD so he knows of it and spotted me for Aspergers in probably 10 min or so. He never backed off his diagnosis from that time despite my insistance that he was wrong a few times. He made sure that I spend a few hours with his wife and she assured him that I was on the spectrum so I guess it is official. I went to see him for grief counseling NOT an Aspgers Dx. The Dx came as a surprise.

Hey I wonder if your psych's wife is my psych. They are a pair and she specializes in ASD. And we live in the same metro area I think. Though it might be relatively common for shrinks to gravitate to one another.

That said, my headshrink rocks. She mostly tries to engage me in conversation and get me to relate to her (I am something of a clam) and describes things in a totally awesome way that is easy to understand and not too overwhelming. I'm always dumbfounded by how she figures out what I am talking about when I am having trouble even coming up with a coherent sentence. She does not push meds, she likes it when I bring in research that I've done, and she's honest about herself to the point where I totally trust her.

My counselor is lovely! She helps me work on the parts of my AS I'd like to change (like eye contact or social situations) and she allows me to have a joke with her.
She never judges, and is always patient.

New Leaves Clinic in Beaverton? How many husband/wife teams can there be here? Great clinic IMHO. He tried to get me to consider seeing her as opposed to him since I was so ASD but I was there for grief counselling, NOT ASD issues and he is very competent at grief counselling. Turns out I had ASD issues that were affecting my ability to process my grief correctly but he got me over it just fine. He worked really hard to work with me. On another note, I am working with Dr Arnold on a few community ASD projects including a Big Brother Big Sisters special ASD program I am trying to start up. She is a GREAT person and I would not hesitiate to recommend her.

I have complained about my psychologist in the past, but in most ways, he is actually quite good for me. He simply is not a specialist in the field of ASD. I went to him because of problems with severe depression. He showed me that I also had problems with social anxiety, social phobia, and PTSD. He has helped me through these issues. He is pretty good at listening, and is non-judgmental. When I'm doing something foolish, he finds a gentle way to let me know without making me feel bad. He has really been quite helpful in overcoming the depression.

Although I wish he could have been more helpful in dealing with my Aspie issues, I am thankful that he did not discourage or disparage me when I brought the issues up.

I had a therapist which was like a good friend, and tried to convince me that I have a lot to give and I should volunteer. It was only one meeting because of my situation (i.e, I have problems that are somewhat money-related, but are mostly family-related really) and we fell out, but she made an indelible impression on me.

This might be a little off topic but I had no idea that aardvarks are good swimmers.

Mine is great - making a HUGE difference.

Well, I have searched for a therapist whom I could trust. This is very important to me. For me it turned out to be my former kindergarten teacher, who later become an educational / pedagogical advisor and picked up 'psychodrama' as a therapeutic method for adults. Since it's a group method and our sessions are based on two-person situations it's called 'monodrama'. Basically it's a combination of counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, and situation based analytic methods.

The best thing I could get so far is a deeper insight into myself. I know it's banal but really even if I had plus 30 points of IQ I couldn't figure out it myself alone so neatly.

The dynamics of your environment, past and present need a sort of reassessment or reevaluation. What you'd like to achieve, your goals come indeed second to it. What's interesting is that an increased self-esteem comes naturally after all that stuff has been dealt with.