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Traditional Theraputic Approaches Therapists often rely on their clients to have some measure of insight into their difficulties, an ability to recognise and name their own emotions and considerable expressive and receptive language skills. In addition, the ability to listen to and process information, as well as some ability to recall and use learned information at the right time between sessions is often seen as necessary for a good therapy outcome. These requirements for ‘traditional talking therapies’ have made it appear to many practitioners that people with cognitive difficulties, such as those with Asperger’s Syndrome or HFA, would be unable to benefit from such approaches. The more typical way of addressing concerns about unusual or unacceptable behaviour was by working through the carers using a behavioural approach. Thankfully, some very creative and thoughtful work is now being done to find ways to help therapists support people with autism to participate in therapy despite their probable difficulties with some of the above skills (e.g. Dagnan & Chadwick, 1997; Sinasen, 1992). This work, along with the work of many others, has helped to show that successful outcomes can be achieved with people who have cognitive impairments and can help therapists to think more creatively about how to support people with autism in therapy. The majority of therapeutic work with people who have autism seems to be centred on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which helps people to recognise how their thoughts and feelings about events influence their behaviour. Sinasen (1992) and colleagues have also shown how Psychoanalytic approaches, which help the person to gain insight into their difficulties, have been helpful to people with cognitive disabilities, some of whom also have autism. Both of these approaches are evidence-based and well grounded in theories of how problem behaviours develop. |
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