Orlando Social Skills Training:
Asperger’s Counseling in Orlando

At Groundwork  in Orlando we help children, teens, and adults with Aspergers develop social skills,  learn ways of coping with intense emotions or feelings related to social interactions. If you or your child has been diagnosed with Asperger’s, you have likely witnessed difficulty with interpersonal relationships and awkwardness in social situations. It is very common for individuals with Asperger’s to have unusually intense interests in certain subject and often, the child or adult with Asperger’s will fixatedly talk about this favorite topic, frequently missing cues of disinterest in the other person.  Individuals with Asperger’s often have a difficult time reading other people’s signals such as tone of voice and facial expressions. This social awkwardness often makes it hard for those with Asperger’s to interact with others and quite commonly leads to feelings of depression and anxiety.

Individuals with Asperger’s also strongly prefer having structure and routine in their life, and will sometimes need to have things positioned and organized in a particular order and often compulsively adhere to specific routines or behaviors.  All of these differences can contribute to a difficulty making friends, succeeding in school or being successful at work.

Asperger’s syndrome is a form of autism, and although Asperger’s syndrome has lost its status in the recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V (DSM-5), many individuals continue to identify having Asperger’s syndrome.

Some symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome include:

• struggling to make and maintain friendships
• difficulty with social communication
• difficulty with social interaction
• difficulty understanding other people’s thoughts, feelings or actions
• difficulty seeing alternative outcomes to situations
• difficulty understanding sarcasm, jokes or metaphors
• a strong preference for routines
• special and specific interests, sometimes to the point of obsession
• sensory difficulties
• problems with fine motor skills
• sleeping problems

Studies have found that counseling utilizing cognitive behavior therapy is most effective when counseling children and adults with Asperger’s. At GroundWork Counseling Orlando, we specialize in CBT therapy and couple CBT with social skills training and development through the counseling process.  In short, CBT helps to change the way a person with Asperger’s thinks about himself/herself and teaches that changing one’s thoughts can alter one’s mood.  It is important to note that early intervention can give children with Asperger’s a higher likelihood of long-term success.  With the right type of intervention, children, teenagers, and adults with Asperger’s can learn to thrive socially, participate in social activities, and live happy, healthy lives.
If you or someone you know could benefit from therapy and counseling please call and schedule with one of our therapists.