Creating Effective Therapeutic Relationships with Asperger's Clients

This essay delves into the challenges and strategies involved in establishing and maintaining effective therapeutic relationships with clients diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). It emphasizes the importance of understanding comorbid issues and addressing them at the intake stage. The paper explores cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as a treatment for AS symptoms and mentions the role of medication alongside psychological support. It reviews literature highlighting the social cognition deficits, difficulties with emotional regulation, and potential for misdiagnosis due to diagnostic overshadowing. The methodology section describes semi-structured interviews with adults with AS. The essay also discusses the significance of family history, sleep hygiene, and the application of CBT in improving social skills and managing mental health issues in individuals with AS. The importance of considering the client's environment, support system, and family dynamics is also highlighted.

What are the challenges and strategies for creating an effective therapeutic relationship
with Asperger’s clients?
Background
The focus of the paper is to focus on the challenges and the strategies for creating a better
and an effective therapeutic relationship which is set with the Asperger’s clients. There is a need
to address what clinicians need to focus on at the time of intake, while they are establishing a
therapeutic relationship with the range and the severity of different comorbid issues. The paper
will discuss about the cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment for the different symptoms of the
Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and then explain the medication procedure with psychological
support. In today’s practice, we are seeing that there are increased syndromes that tend to seek
for the treatment for the different mental health issues. There are existence of the general DSM-
IV-TR classification from the pervasive developmental disorders which are seen on the spectrum
of autism.
Literature Review
The people with the problem of AS are seen to be aloof or completely detached and
disinterested in the world. They are only focusing on a particular detail and then they get
detached or distracted easily. Their verbal skills are also mainly of superior intelligence where
they have a difficult in properly reading the different social cues. It is seen that the people facing
the problems of Asperger’s are generally arrogant and anxious about the things going in their
environment (Abraham, 2017). The individuals who have been struggling with the problem of
psychological framework and the central coherence with social cognition requires to focus on the

different concepts and roles of AS clients which is important for the effective treatment. The
people with AS also face challenges related to the failure of general idea for a particular topic
and to remember its relevant detail (Wright & Kaupins, 2018). This comes to them as an
overload of information with major frustration and anxiety. Considering the social cognition, it is
seen that there is a need to focus on the ability to recognize and understand the different mental
states which tend to innate the idea for picking up and reading the different mental states of the
people. The individuals who are with AS cannot process and understand the different cues. The
research begins with the individuals who are experiencing major depression due to the
environmental occurrences like the bullying in school (Wright & Kaupins, 2018). The major
challenge for these people are to work harder so that they can present themselves as “normal” in
front of the people. The obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the other complexity and
anxiety disorder which comes with AS, and the individuals tend to focus on the specific interest
area. Their compulsive idea of the disorder comes mainly from the rigorous and the different sets
of routine activities where there are no functional values (Gould, 2018).
It is possible that the clinicians might be missing or overlooking the disorder of mood
which is based on the disorder that is known as the “diagnostic overshadow”. The example is
about the intense focus on the different areas of interests which can lead to the excessive speak
about a topic and how on is able to interpret about the hypo-manic episode. There are differential
diagnosis with the stress and difficulty where as people are not able to regulate or properly
express their emotions and so it can lead to the sudden outburst as well with the streak of rage
and the depression as well (Parsloe & Babrow, 2016).
The people who are aware of the AS, need to focus getting diagnosed from psychologists,
neurologists and the psychiatrists. The situations are related to obtaining a family history which

is a key to confirm the diagnosis. Here, ASD is considered to be suspected for the genetic roots
and often the family members might not be diagnosed officially but they are considered to be
“odd”. Obtaining the family history is a key for confirming the diagnosis where ASD has been
suspected as one of the genetic roots (Cooper & Allely, 2017). For the people with the AS
syndrome, it is important to realize that they have a good sleep as it directly affects their mood
and the cognitive ability, their patience and how they feel physically. The good night is
imperative not only for a better mental health but also for a healthy lifestyle. For the AS people,
there is a need to make a to-do list which helps them to take a relaxing sleep at night, so that the
brain stops reminding for the tasks of the next day. The meditation and the progressive muscle
relaxation are some of the best techniques for the aiding of sleep (Benbow, 2016).
The cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the methods which includes the teaching and
the learning about how the individuals should be allowed for looking at their different
standardized charts of improvement. The therapy can easily be applicable for the individuals who
are facing issues with AS. It is seen that CBT has been able to highlight over the ability to handle
the different mental issues and then properly showing the standards of positive interaction with
teaching the skills to reach different social cues. The individuals with AS can be seen as guarded
and reserved because they will not be talking or will just be stating the different facts about
themselves, where there will be no feelings attached to it (Ayashiro, 2018). Hence, this can lead
to the major issues of strain for obtaining a complete alliance with increased gain of trust and
understanding the client requirements as well.
At the time of treatment of AS client, there is a need to consider about the person’s
environment, support and the family. There are different challenges that the child with AS might
be facing, including the social casework, physical, speech and the occupational therapy. These

are some of the services which can be found to be invaluable for helping the clients to improve
the coping skills and coordinating with the other professionals who need to pursue whenever
possible. The consideration is about the family dynamics with acceptance to the diagnosis with
supporting the therapeutic work (Vitković, Martinec, & Dolović, 2018). The mainstream
diagnosis includes that there are different advocacy and the self-determination procedures which
are in existence that are considered to be the invaluable sources of support.
Methodology
The methodological approach includes the 13 semi-structured interviews which have
been conducted with the adults (women mainly) recruited from the different online groups which
are for the people set with AS. The interviews are done through email, skype and then face-to-
face to explore the different experiences of counselling. The methodological recommendations
are about conducting the interviews with people where AS is discusses to minimize the use of the
non-literal language. Here, the transcripts are analyzed through the use of the thematic analysis
where the common themes are relevant for the research. There are different methods which are
adopted for addressing the different social skills and then training is identified through
evaluating the impacts and the empirical support for the possible efficacy at the time of working
with AS clients. The qualitative study has been taken where the interviews are conducted
through email. The interview is considered important for gathering the rich data about the
experiences from participants.
The recruitment and the sampling is important for the permission which is granted by the
website administrators for posting the recruitment notices on the different websites and the social
media. The sampling size is to identify the common themes and the differences which are among
the people to guide the research. The strategy is purposive with the specific population that is

being targeted. Hence, the participants need to be of 18 years or more who have a proper
experience and are also able to speak English with capability to understand the information
sheet. To respect, the participants were also asked for the processing of the diagnosis with the
evidence that they had received a proper formal diagnosis.
References
Abraham, J. (2017). (Dis) engaging with Asperger's: An Autoethnographic Approach to
Neurodiveristy and Interpersonal Relationships. Depart Crit Qual Res, 6(1), 52-71.
Ayashiro, H. (2018). What does a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome mean to a school-aged
Japanese client? A case study illustrating the use of positioning theory. Wisdom in
Education, 8(1), 2.
Benbow, A. (2016). Being men: Men, Asperger’s and dramatherapy. In Dramatherapy and
Autism (pp. 106-120). Routledge.
Cooper, P., & Allely, C. (2017). You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover: Evolving Professional
Responsibilities, Liabilities and Judgecraft When a Party Has Asperger's Syndrome. N.
Ir. Legal Q., 68, 35.
Gould, R. (2018). ‘Making Room for the Other (s)’: A consideration of psychodynamic
counselling with women with Asperger’s Syndrome. Psychodynamic Practice, 24(2),
145-159.
Parsloe, S. M., & Babrow, A. S. (2016). Removal of Asperger’s syndrome from the DSM V:
Community response to uncertainty. Health communication, 31(4), 485-494.

Vitković, T., Martinec, R., & Dolović, N. (2018). The use of neurofeedback method in a child
with Asperger's syndrome. Medica Jadertina, 48(3), 125-136.
Wright, S., & Kaupins, G. (2018). “What About Us?” Exploring What It Means to Be a
Management Educator With Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Management
Education, 42(2), 199-210.
Wright, S., & Kaupins, G. (2018). Educators with Asperger’s Syndrome: An Interview with
Professor Gundy Kaupins on Teaching Challenges, Solutions, and Advantages. Journal
Management Education.