Does anyone work as a counsellor, social worker or similar?

Post Reply New Topic

My life has improved quite considerably recently, and for the first time in years I can picture a future without crippling depression, which brings me to the question - what am I going to do with my life? I've had several false starts in careers that were wrong for me, and of course every failed attempt has been a major blow to my confidence. So I want to get it right this time... (I'm on a disability pension at the moment so I have the luxury of taking my time to think about it carefully).

I keep coming back to the same thing - I really want to do counselling, and put my experiences with mental health to good use. It's what I've wanted to do all along really, and knowing what I know now, I'd love to work with adult Aspies or victims of DV. A close friend is doing the course I would be doing, so I have a pretty good idea what to expect. People who know me well think I'd be good at it and my psychologist is also encouraging me to go for it, but my being an Aspie is holding me back somewhat, and I'm wondering, will I really be able to cope in a job where I have to closely interact with/talk to people all the time and deal with upsetting/stressful situations? I know ultimately no one can answer that question for me, but I'm just wondering if there's someone out there who is an Aspie working in this area, and how you're finding it

Thanks.

i was reading tarot cards for people
it was difficult to counsel people they would sit and keep crying all the while
i am not good in dealing with human emotions, neither i am good in talking, neither i am a confident person
i failed miserably in handling them

I work as a Program Administrator for a social services agency and a lot of my job duties fall into the social work category. It's challenging, but I think I've learned a lot about how to better work with people over the past five years I've been in this field. I typically interact with clients one-on-one, which is at least much easier for me than working with groups.

I've thought about going to grad school part time for my Master's in Social Work, so that I could do clinical social work, but in the US, a huge part of those programs is the field practicum and I just don't know how I could balance working full-time (a must in order to keep my health insurance), plus night classes, plus an internship.

My mother was a very successful family therapist. She hasn't been diagnosed formally as an aspie, but she's got a lot of the classic traits. She has told me that she never felt any empathy toward her clients and usually had no idea what they were feeling. She was successful, though, because she sees families as systems and was able to identify what parts of the system were broken. She also says that not having empathy helped her, in that it allowed her to listen to problems year after year without burning out.

So I'd say that being an aspie could actually make you be a uniquely able therapist, in the right field.

Thanks everyone. I'm still not sure what to do but I appreciate the replies. kritie, what you say about your mother is very interesting. I do have empathy - probably too much - but have a different way of expressing it. So I guess that could be a good thing. Food for thought! Thanks again.

As a counselor, your role is well-defined and people you work with are not likely to be mean or cruel to you or play social games with you as they need your help!

i majored in psychology in a top-ranked university, graduated with honors, and intended to go to graduate school to become a clinical psychologist. However I ended up in law school instead and became a lawyer where I also acted as a counselor, but in a different capacity. I had no problem relating to my clients and I feel it was because of my well-defined role. They were relying upon me for advice and it was not a competitive atmosphere. I don't do as well in social settings where any subject is fair fodder. Sometimes, I get lost in social conversations as I don't have anything to add, and I can't even interrupt the conversation and take it elsewhere. People see me as cold and arrogant when I don't participate but they don't realize it is because I am unable to, and not because I am not interested or don't want to. But in a professional, counseling role, I never had this problem. My clients respected and deferred to me.

Still swimming, it's so odd that people find you cold because I found you as warm and caring.

Cheese Deprived, what's DV? Also, I wanted to ask, what's you history or story? What did you study, work in? What did you like/dislike? Giving some history will help show how you got to where you are now.

I think you could do counseling, you'll need to make an extra effort to study body language and reading it and displaying it. You won't need to be a broadway actor, I think you can do it.