You know, working together on something outside might be absolutely the ticket. Genius.

Even therapists are suffering these days. It’s just more challenging than it’s ever been to gaslight clients into believing their concerns about the world aren’t objectively true and instead the symptom of an internal struggle.

your presumption is that you’d be a better therapist, not a worse one, if you have more shared experiences with the client. that’s not something current evidence supports.

That isn't something I said or what I meant. Have fun arguing with your strawman.

they're checking their own understanding by giving you an opportunity to correct them. by rephrasing it identically, it doesnt build any new understanding.

Yes, I understand the purpose of doing that... but they will rephrase it with different words, different meanings, leave out qualifiers, or add in qualifiers, etc.

Many times, the rephrasing doesn't change the meaning, and I agree, no problem.

But sometimes, specific wording or phrasing matters greatly.

I've found this is a concept many neurotypicals generally struggle with, that you can't always just reform a sentence into something easier to parse... because that can lose complexity and precision, and I am trying to convey something complex and precise.

And more often, when I object to my words being reformed... it is women who view my objection as aggressive, agitated, rude, hostile, combatative, etc.

does it not matter to you to be understood by others?

Broadly, I am well understood by most of the people I interact with.

Other than people clumsily trying to psychoanalyze me, and manipulative sociopath/narcissist types.

So no, I do not generally worry about my communication skills, as I have no problem communicating with the vast majority of people.

...

For instance... I am aware that I am often rather verbose, and tend to ramble... thats actually a sign that I feel comfortable, and trust whoever I am talking to.

I am also aware that this can be verbally, conversationally overwhelming with people who think it is rude to interrupt.

So I just tell people, hey, i have a tendency to ramble, I will not be offended at all if you interject and politely tell me to shut it, refocus, try to summarize, etc, when I am obviously rambling to tangential topics, or just telling a long story or something.

And this works very well with people who can gather the... courage? to do this, as I genuinely do not find it offensive.

But with people who are for whatever reason so timid that even after I've given them explicit permission to interrupt me... they still don't actually do it... well, they tend to be frustrated with me, overwhelmed.

Normally, thats fine, I don't need to be everyone's friend.

But when its someone who I basically have little or no choice but to communicate with that particulsr person... yes, this can lead to problems.

maybe that's why you're bashing therapy on the internet, asking for CBT worksheets instead of building rapport, and indirectly praising relationships with LLMs?

So for starters, I quite explicitly said that I think using LLMs for therapy is a 'fucking horrible idea', I just didn't expand on that as much... as to me this is fairly self evident and obvious.

So we now see that you are... doing the thing.

You are putting words in my mouth, because what I specifically said was evidently too complex for you to fully parse, and now you've reformulated it into a bastardized form that is actually contradictory to what I said.

Your poor reading comprehension skills are not my problem.

...

Secondly... I am not bashing therapy broadly, I think it is a great concept when well executed and easily accessible.

CBT in particular is more than just a set of paperwork... it is often very helpful to have a therapist use CBT methods, guidr someone through it in person.

I have been to a good number of therapists who've used CBT methods and they have been quite helpful... I am trying to say that I just needed a refresher, a paper copy, and after that, its been like getting back on a bicycle, I remember my training, lol.

...

Also as far as building rapport: I don't really care to, as I am currently in a relatively temporary living situation, month to month rent, and I fully plan on moving to somewhere with more robust social safety nets and a better mental health support system, public transit system, etc, as soon as I am able, as soon as my PT has been effective enough that I am cleared by my PT team.

As I already mentioned... there are literally no therapists in the state I am currently in, via the health insurancd I can even barely afford... that are qualified and specialized to help an adult with autism.

Not sure where you are, but in the US broadly, there are hardly any psychologists or therapists that are properly qualified to treat high functioning adults with autism.

They are rare, expensive, and have huge waitlists.

I'm in a quite poor red state at the moment, with no highly reputable schools or psychology departments.

Here, autism = you're retarded, and its only ever evaluated as a 'disability' affecting children.

... So my plan is to try to get to where some actual civilization and professionals exist, and to the greatest extent possible, avoid useless or harmful advice from overconfident and untrained specialists who have to pull out the DSM V to understand a reference I am making.

Seems rational to me?

okay then... I guess you're making this an adversarial thing. I'm not sure what you intended to mean by bringing up shared experiences if you weren't speaking to efficacy. but i guess i get why you made it adversarial: it's frustrating being misunderstood. happens to me too. i just got a comment like that in my inbox just like it. I tried to share insights on how empathy and diversity contributes to positive outcomes in therapy, and i got this bizarre tone deaf debate bro response instead. cant always be understood, i guess. it's fine. if you can't find common ground, you can at least tell people off who are trying to have a pleasant conversation with you, that'll at least ensure fewer and fewer people interact with you

thank you for the clarifications, sorry if I disturbed you. getting services in rural areas really sucks too. Hopefully you can find a good online practicioner. therapy needs more national certificates so we can stop leaving red state people in suffering

I mean, I explained why I don't really need a basic therapist beyond just going over the basics of CBT, which I've already done now... but sure, ok, thanks?

For what its worth, I'm not the single downvote your comment here has.

Your responses have been extremely unpleasant and argumentative.

Are you confusing my responses with sp3ctr4l?

I didn't even check.

um, I'm not sure why you're off-put by my comment either, i guess instead I'm supposed to i wish you didnt have access to services?
(or i guess i wish your life is so dull and uneventful such that you never need therapy again /j)

either way the only reason I responded was to say sorry i disturbed you. not really sure i mean that any more, that was kind of a dick reply but whatever

i just want to point out the irony of someone going on and on about anti therapy stuff, and then says there's no mental health care around me. if you think it's just a pill mill, maybe you didnt understand where you were going. the vast majority of therapists cant even prescribe rx.

and the complaint you have about how, in your words, "no one ever quotes me directly, they always ruin my words by interpreting me instead of parroting me" get over yourself. you see why they call you argumentative? because you bitch and moan about an interpretation not being perfect. guess what, communication isn't perfect, that's why you compromise and clarify.

Honestly your response to me has been so fucking rude i dont know why I'm wasting five minutes on you. you dont seem to give a shit about what anyone else thinks

nope, not confusing you with anyone.

and the point I'm trying to make is that you're perceiving it as argumentative when it's not. you finding me unpleasant is entirely your business, not mine.

just please be aware of what I'm trying to tell you about the value of demographic differences.