[SarahSweden]

I´ve been searching for a new T after I got badly terminated about half a year ago. I´ve been grieving my former T, who I saw for 12 sessions, and that´s partly why it has been difficult to find a new T.

Today I met with a new T who I´ve seen for only two sessions before, evaluations. I´ve told her I´ve seen more than 10 T:s in evaluation before I met with her. That is, I´ve just seen one therapist for a regular therapy.

The T I saw for 12 sessions had more than 30 years of experience, she was a psychologist with training in evaluating psychiatric diagnoses. She wasn´t a psychiatrist though. She never ever mentioned anything about her thinking of me as having a diagnosis. I´m 30+ and noone at school or something like that has ever told me or my parents they think I have a diagnosis.

I also did the autism/aspberger quiz here at PC and there was no indication I have such a diagnosis.

I´m now very upset about this, I´ve been struggling for so long to find a T. But I can´t see how meeting many T:s for evaluation is a reason for suspecting a diagnoses? She of course didn´t say she was sure but still, she recommended me to do a psychiatric evalution.

When I saw the first T, whom I really liked, I also felt better and suddenly this T talks about diagnosis. I have another appointment with this T next week but I don´t know if I´ll go because of this.

Have someone experienced something similar? Is it really possible or even ethical to talk about diagnoses as she is no psychiatrist? And after just two sessions?

[phaset]

It sounds like she is just suggesting a possibility, not diagnosing you. I doubt that seeing other psychologists was a factor in this, unless she said it was specifically. Here a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose Autism, but few have the experience to do so. My therapist knew nothing about Asperger's before I saw her but she referred me to a psychologist for an evaluation and a psychiatrist to follow up. It's possible that she's totally wrong, you've only seen her twice, but what if she has experience your previous therapist didn't? Also some therapists don't believe in telling their clients what they think their diagnosis might be. Looking back I also think the therapist I saw when I was younger might have suspected but didn't say anything.

I think you should see her and ask why she thinks you could have Asperger's or Autism. The AQ screening test here on PC is not a perfect indication one way or another, also the female presentation of Aspereger's/Autism can be different, most material is based on males.

[Perna]

Diagnosis is what therapists/doctors do; they have to have some idea of what they might be treating you for so they can decide if they can help you. As phaset says, if they have no background in what they suspect you may have, they want you to see someone who may be better able to help. That all has to happen in the first few sessions. I would go see her again and talk about this with her, make sure you do/do not want to work with her and/or go see a psychiatrist or whomever she is suggesting to get a second opinion.

[emptyspace]

Psychologists can make diagnoses.
If you don't like the diagnosis, talk to your T. My new T did not agree with my old T regarding the diagnosis.
In the US, you need a diagnosis for health insurance.
Everyone that sees a psychologist or psychiatrist gets a diagnosis, because it helps T and pdoc with a treatment plan, etc.

[Daisymay]

Originally Posted by SarahSweden

I´ve been searching for a new T after I got badly terminated about half a year ago. I´ve been grieving my former T, who I saw for 12 sessions, and that´s partly why it has been difficult to find a new T.

Today I met with a new T who I´ve seen for only two sessions before, evaluations. I´ve told her I´ve seen more than 10 T:s in evaluation before I met with her. That is, I´ve just seen one therapist for a regular therapy.

The T I saw for 12 sessions had more than 30 years of experience, she was a psychologist with training in evaluating psychiatric diagnoses. She wasn´t a psychiatrist though. She never ever mentioned anything about her thinking of me as having a diagnosis. I´m 30+ and noone at school or something like that has ever told me or my parents they think I have a diagnosis.

I also did the autism/aspberger quiz here at PC and there was no indication I have such a diagnosis.

I´m now very upset about this, I´ve been struggling for so long to find a T. But I can´t see how meeting many T:s for evaluation is a reason for suspecting a diagnoses? She of course didn´t say she was sure but still, she recommended me to do a psychiatric evalution.

When I saw the first T, whom I really liked, I also felt better and suddenly this T talks about diagnosis. I have another appointment with this T next week but I don´t know if I´ll go because of this.

Have someone experienced something similar? Is it really possible or even ethical to talk about diagnoses as she is no psychiatrist? And after just two sessions?

As someone married to a man with a diagnosis of AS (Asperger's SYndrome) and one of our children also diagnosed, I would have thought that if this is something you really do have then some characteristics/symptoms of it would have been spotted before now. Your parents, teachers etc would have noticed something. But I do also know that girls and woman who are mildly on the spectrum can be very good at masking AS characteristics - I believe it is sometimes harder to spot in girls. I know of two women whose T's suspected they had AS but a later diagnostic test by a properly trained professional proved they did not.

There are a lot of reasons why someone (anyone) might show signs that are common signs of having AS. For that reason only properly trained professionals can make a real diagnosis. Your T obviously noticed something that might indicate AS - but not necessarily. You could ask her what it was that made her say that?

If, where you are, means you need a diagnosis for therapy (different here in the UK) then make sure the person doing the diagnostic test is correctly trained and qualified to do so.

Don't 'label' yourself with anything. You're uniquely you whether you have a diagnosis for AS or anything else for that matter - or not.

Take care.

[musinglizzy]

I was curious and tried out one of the online therapy websites for a short time. One of the ones that I talked to, just within a couple of messages, had me looking up aspergers because she suspected I "had" it. She obviously never met me, or talked to me on the phone, it was just from a couple of messages. I was quite shocked actually. I do not fit the bill for that.

[divine1966]

She can't diagnose but she can suggest what you might have. I don't know how much experience she has. I work with special needs population my whole life and it sometimes takes me 5 minutes to suspect what person might be having ( no I am not screaming my diagnosis when I meet people lol) I am usually pretty accurate. It is just years of experience in the field. You start seeing things what others don't

My t told me what traits she observes in me upon first meeting me. ( no it's not ASD) It wasn't formal diagnosis but it was very accurate. She spent 50 minutes with me. She is on her mid 60s and had ton of experience. She knew. No one else before her ever said a thing. It doesn't mean she is wrong

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SarahSweden]

She said she reacted to the number of therapists I´ve seen before her (in evaluation but I´m not sure she got that part, that it wasn´t in regular therapy) and then she brought this up.

This T doesn´t have to present that kind of diagnoses to an insurance company or anyone else to be able to take clients into therapy.

I still ask the question how it´s possible to judge such things after just seeing a client two times. And I also think it´s perhaps not unethical but very careless to leave me (or any client) with such a statement and just leave me by to the next session.

Originally Posted by phaset

It sounds like she is just suggesting a possibility, not diagnosing you. I doubt that seeing other psychologists was a factor in this, unless she said it was specifically. Here a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose Autism, but few have the experience to do so. My therapist knew nothing about Asperger's before I saw her but she referred me to a psychologist for an evaluation and a psychiatrist to follow up. It's possible that she's totally wrong, you've only seen her twice, but what if she has experience your previous therapist didn't? Also some therapists don't believe in telling their clients what they think their diagnosis might be. Looking back I also think the therapist I saw when I was younger might have suspected but didn't say anything.

I think you should see her and ask why she thinks you could have Asperger's or Autism. The AQ screening test here on PC is not a perfect indication one way or another, also the female presentation of Aspereger's/Autism can be different, most material is based on males.

[SarahSweden]

Perhaps it´s a bit difference between countries because here noone but a psychologist or a psychiatrist sets diagnoses. Of course a therapist (here that person has less education than a psychologist) may see traits in a person that´s similar to this or that diagnosis but he or she can´t really tell as he or she isn´t trained to diagnose.

And I get back to the fact that noone else ever mentioned this, she has not even given me a chance to me more open to her. I know, as she told me, that I tend to intellectualize and my former T said so as well but after some sessions she saw I was more relaxed and more emotionally present.

I feel really bad about this, not because I think one should feel ashamed or anything, but because this feels as a pounce and I don´t understand her way of acting.

Originally Posted by Perna

Diagnosis is what therapists/doctors do; they have to have some idea of what they might be treating you for so they can decide if they can help you. As phaset says, if they have no background in what they suspect you may have, they want you to see someone who may be better able to help. That all has to happen in the first few sessions. I would go see her again and talk about this with her, make sure you do/do not want to work with her and/or go see a psychiatrist or whomever she is suggesting to get a second opinion.

[SarahSweden]

It´s not a proffessional diagnosis, it´s just something she told me based on seeing me just a couple of times. It´s because of that not about me liking a diagnosis but me being very upset by her acting as she is neighter a psychologist nor a psychiatrist.

It´s also a difference between talking about neuropsychiatric diagnoses, as for example aspbergers and to tell a client a diagnosis like depression.

Originally Posted by emptyspace

Psychologists can make diagnoses.
If you don't like the diagnosis, talk to your T. My new T did not agree with my old T regarding the diagnosis.
In the US, you need a diagnosis for health insurance.
Everyone that sees a psychologist or psychiatrist gets a diagnosis, because it helps T and pdoc with a treatment plan, etc.

[SarahSweden]

Yes, I´ve thought like this many times and it felt nice someone has this perspective as you do. As AS for example gives symptom like having harder to meet with people for example, of course that and other symptoms could be put together and then you claim, as my T did, that you perhaps have AS.

She also know I´ve been seeing a T for several months before I met with her and I think that should make her much more careful about what she says. I hadn´t question anything if I´d seen her for several months and she felt she couldn´t get through.

Because that´s what it´s mostly about. I would say a lot of people have difficulties in showing emotions to strangers in the beginning so I think her behaviour and statement is wreckless.

To hear something like this of course made me worried even if I don´t give much for that kind of statement based on only two sessions.

Originally Posted by Daisymay

As someone married to a man with a diagnosis of AS (Asperger's SYndrome) and one of our children also diagnosed, I would have thought that if this is something you really do have then some characteristics/symptoms of it would have been spotted before now. Your parents, teachers etc would have noticed something. But I do also know that girls and woman who are mildly on the spectrum can be very good at masking AS characteristics - I believe it is sometimes harder to spot in girls. I know of two women whose T's suspected they had AS but a later diagnostic test by a properly trained professional proved they did not.

There are a lot of reasons why someone (anyone) might show signs that are common signs of having AS. For that reason only properly trained professionals can make a real diagnosis. Your T obviously noticed something that might indicate AS - but not necessarily. You could ask her what it was that made her say that?

If, where you are, means you need a diagnosis for therapy (different here in the UK) then make sure the person doing the diagnostic test is correctly trained and qualified to do so.

Don't 'label' yourself with anything. You're uniquely you whether you have a diagnosis for AS or anything else for that matter - or not.

Take care.

[SarahSweden]

Yes, I see to that aspect, the experience. My former T was a psychologist, not "just" a therapist and she´d worked for over 30 years within the field. She never talked about AS or such diagnosis. This T who speculated around diagnoses has much less experience and her main education isn´t within mental health care.

But what upsets me of course is the way she acted, talking about diagnoses after just two sessions and then leaving me by with thoughts and worries.

Originally Posted by divine1966

She can't diagnose but she can suggest what you might have. I don't know how much experience she has. I work with special needs population my whole life and it sometimes takes me 5 minutes to suspect what person might be having ( no I am not screaming my diagnosis when I meet people lol) I am usually pretty accurate. It is just years of experience in the field. You start seeing things what others don't

My t told me what traits she observes in me upon first meeting me. ( no it's not ASD) It wasn't formal diagnosis but it was very accurate. She spent 50 minutes with me. She is on her mid 60s and had ton of experience. She knew. No one else before her ever said a thing. It doesn't mean she is wrong

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Daisymay]

"But what upsets me of course is the way she acted, talking about diagnoses after just two sessions and then leaving me by with thoughts and worries."[/QUOTE]

I think it was unkind of her to do that. She doesn't know you yet so to leave you with that opinion of hers without knowing how you'd take that (and most people would feel pretty unsettled over being told and then just left with the idea that they might have a particular disorder) was quite clumsy of her I think. If she really wanted to make this suggestion then I'd have thought it would have been better at the start of the next session so you could talk it over together - preferably with some extra time or offer of phone/email support if you needed it.

If you are feeling very unsettled and upset can you contact her before your next session? I know some Ts allow between session contact.

[-jimi-]

Unless this therapist is a complete loser, she saw something in you. That does not mean she interpreted it right. But my guess is she noticed something in your nonverbals that made her think autism. It's actually quite hard to understand what nonverbal signals you yourself send out. If you lack feedback, you might think you behave in a manner you do not.

Now I'm not saying you have autism but yes you should ask why she thinks that. Don't just throw it away.

And yes it is very possible to have autism go undetected into adulthood.

In Sweden you cannot be formally diagnosed unless you go through 2-3 days of intense testing by a team of experts. Unless you pay up, the waiting list is 1-2 years. So you really do not have to worry about being diagnosed at this point in time.

[iheartjacques]

Someone I know has only just been diagnosed with AS and she's in her 40's. Everyone else missed it for some reason. She's a lot happier now though.