I met with a client today whose presenting problem was the he wanted to be rid of the stigma and problems associated with autism. This person could be considered a high-functioning young adult with Aspergers syndrome. His intelligence is normal to high, while some of his behaviors are still typical of the syndrome... namely intense focus on certain topics (airplanes, trains, dinosaurs, cars, video games, etc.), boredom with many school topics, and some blindness to social nuances.
We decided that our approach would be to disolve any associations to the lables of "Autism" or "Aspergers", and work on the behaviors themselves, building a strong belief in the plasticity of his mind to learn any skill required.
We started by checking to see if it was alright to let Autism be a thing of the past, and to begin from this day forward to have a life without it. We got a congruent yes. Then we chatted about Autism as a nominalization, deciding together that Aut-is-m could now be just an Aut-was-m.
To release past negative feelings about having been labeled Autistic in the past, we went back on his timeline to 3 different occasions where the negative feelings of anger, frustration, embarrassment were quite strong, and associated with them. From the associated state, we practiced "Dropping Down Through" the negative emotions in a freefall towards the void, and then on through the void, the other side of which were filled with positive kinesthetic feelings of love, acceptance, pure intelligence and the pre-Autistic condition. The learnings were that after the exercises, the emotions were discharged, and the client was empowered with all these positive kinesthetics on return to the present.
Then we moved on to establishing and anchoring a great learning state through focus and expanded awareness. He learned that it was actually quite easy to establish and maintain a learning state, and that learning things inside that learning state were quite unforgettable. We reinforced that since he was capable of this ability, it meant that his mind was quite plastic and capable of learning new skills, even learning skills, and that must mean that his Aut-was-m is now truly a thing of the past.
Finally we future paced these learnings and skills, inoculating him against any future comments he might receive from family members and friends wittingly or unwittingly allowing those comments to happen, but endowing them with the right to be wrong. I also met separately with his mother to coach her as well.
Now I don't know if we will ever completely understand the neurological basis for Autism and Aspergers, or if there will ever be a cure, but I DO know that the brain and mind are more plastic than we think, and that through learning new beliefs and behaviors, as well as finding contexts where odd behaviors are quite appropriate, folks that at one time received a diagnosis of Autism or Aspergers can integrate into society very well, and flourish. I also know that nobody needs stigma or ostracism in their life. We all need resourceful beliefs and skills.
More later!
A follow up note for this client. We spent some time testing whether the earlier intervention was still effective. He reports that he feels totally free of his own association with the autistic and Aspergers labels, and that leaves him room emotionally to continue to implement updated learning strategies in school, and in his relationships. He feels much more flexible.