Scoots in group therapy...

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Firday morning I had another meeting at the counseling center on the campus there in oshkosh. The doctors there want to enroll me into a program called the "interpersonal skills development group" It's a support group for people who have trouble with being effective at social interaction like I'am. The group meets every monday for two hours in the evening to try and does stuff like roll playing to help build social skills.

I have a meeting monday afternoon with the leader of this group to see if I qualify for this group.

ooh er, that's sounds uh intriguing, please give us a blow-by-blow account of the group therapy, I'm curious as to how they can teach social skills, especially to adults who may already have acquired some... I'm sure you'll be accepted.

PP

Update:

I had a meeting today with team leaders of this support group that I'm looking at enrolling in. They told me that the sessions are NT oriented and pretty intense and fast paced, and would be hard for someone with my level of social comprehension to follow along with.

So before this group starts up, I have to go for one-on-one sessions to help get a grip on some basics that will help me be an active member of this group.

As of now, there's no set start date, and it looks like it'll be me and ten other people.

BTW - Both team leaders have heard of aspergers before.

'They told me that the sessions are NT oriented'

What does that mean?

'and pretty intense and fast paced,'

hmmm

'and would be hard for someone with my level of social comprehension to follow along with.'

but that's the whole idea, surely? the courses are for people with social comprehension problems?

'So before this group starts up, I have to go for one-on-one sessions to help get a grip on some basics that will help me be an active member of this group. '

gah, oh well, hey, are you paying for this or is it free, because it sounds like they're putting you where you'll have to spend the most money. Sorry to sound suspicious.

This is a university sponsored group, so I don't get charged for anything.

When I say that the group is NT oriented, I mean that it wasn't meant for people who have aspergers, but NT's who are as they put it - rude to others, but it helps reinforce the skills that I don't have.

However, before I can go into this group, I need to do some primer work so I can react properly during the sessions.

In essence, I have to learn how to emulate basic NT empathy skills before I can go into to this group to learn basic NT social skills.

I wonder what are basic NT empathy skills and how long does it take to learn to emulate them. Did they tell you any examples?

I already had a lesson in "reflection": that is trying to mirror someone else's mood based on the tone of their voice to emulate empathy.

One thing is for sure, that was news to me.

Friday is sure to be more fun

scoots, is there any opportunity for you to tell THEM what you'd like to do, or what you think you need? or do they decide what happens?

V

' This is a university sponsored group, so I don't get charged for anything. '

Oh well grab it then, one-on-one should be good.

'When I say that the group is NT oriented, I mean that it wasn't meant for people who have aspergers, but NT's who are as they put it - rude to others...'

I'd suspect some type of disability underlying this alleged NT behaviour anyway, whether it's ADD, psychopathy or whatever.

<snip> ' In essence, I have to learn how to emulate basic NT empathy skills before I can go into to this group to learn basic NT social skills.'

oh ok, like learning how to feed the chooks before making the omelette or something?

'I already had a lesson in "reflection": that is trying to mirror someone else's mood based on the tone of their voice to emulate empathy.'

ooh er, I don't 'hear' voice tone terribly well, I don't seem to tune into it unless it's 'strong'.

'One thing is for sure, that was news to me.'

Me too, sort-of. love to know more, if it's not too tedious for you to put it into writing.

PP

What moods are you supposed to emulate? I guess that happiness for sure should be "reflected", but what about sadness? (Better not to "reflect" anger, I think.)

Another update:

I had another meeting today with doctor altekruse. We went over some recognition skills, which I struggling to get a grasp on. A situation would be presented to me, and I would mentally freeze trying to make sense of it.

Anyways, after he observed this with me, he now thinks that the group counseling session he wanted me to join wouldn't be such a good idea. His basic assumption is that my higher level thinking and recognition skills are poor enough that I just won't be able to make in this fast paced group that is full of "rude" NT's.

So plan A is now in the crapper.
Plan B is now on the drawing board

awwww

I had doubts about how 'teachable' these things are to us, I think children can be taught some basic concepts, like 'circle of friends' things but uh I just don't know that we're even speaking the same language enough to pick up these 'translations'.

Rude NTs hmmm, still got doubts about that! What's plan B?