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Asperger's Syndrome affects people in different ways. It can affect
home, work, and school. It can affect relationships with friends, family,
and co-workers or classmates. However it affects you, help is available.
Whether you are a child, an adolescent, or an
adult with Asperger's
Syndrome, we can help. With individual or small group therapy, we can
address those concerns that are associated with the disorder.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
(CBT)
If you offer someone a piece of your
home-made fruit cake, and he doesn't like the way it tastes, he might
say, "No thanks, I'm not hungry." We are taught that lying is bad.
Should we discourage his behavior? CBT is a widely accepted evidence and
empirically based psychotherapy method. The particular therapeutic
technique for those with Asperger's Syndrome uses significant events and
associated feelings to question and test cognitions, assumptions, and
beliefs that might be unhelpful, and unrealistic. In the above case we
teach them to be flexible in their thinking, and show them how to be
more adaptive to the situation.
Rational Emotive Behavior
Therapy (REBT)
When you are very angry,
yelling is an appropriate response, yet we try to discourage that behavior when
the emotion is unfounded. Instead of trying to change the behavior, we
should focus on changing the thought; that will in turn change the emotion,
which will in turn change the behavior. Instead of trying to decrease the
yelling, we try to decrease getting "very angry" in situations where it does not
make sense.
REBT helps people by
teaching them to recognize and change those aspects of their thinking which are
insensible, inaccurate, or not useful. It is designed to reduce upset feelings
and increase personal effectiveness through rational-emotive imagery,
communication skill training, and other exercises.
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