What's With These Baby Ducks???

An introduction to how I modify CBT for neurodivergent clients

NATALIE FURDEK, M.ED., LPC

First of let me say that I am a person-centered counselor above all else, but I also routinely use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in my work. CBT must be heavily modified for autistic and ADHD clients, and this is one of the topics I will spend a good bit of time writing about in this space.

As for these ducklings, if I have any “autistic superpowers” at all, one would be my brain’s ability to think of random metaphors to explain mental health concepts. The baby ducks described here will be followed in future writings by uranium, traffic barricades, gardens, gas stations and more!

CBT essentially tells us that our emotions reflect our thoughts. Whatever you are thinking about, you are likely feeling about. This is very oversimplified, but that is the gist of it on the surface and good enough to introduce the baby ducks.

While it is mostly true that our feelings follow our thoughts around, it is my observation that they do so more like baby ducks follow their mama. They are designed to do it through a process called imprinting, but they do it imperfectly, to say the least. When things are calm and easy, sure, our emotions do follow our thoughts just like the ducklings in the photo above are following the mother duck.

But think about all the things that can happen to baby ducks in a day that make it impossible - for a moment or two - to do what they are designed to do. There’s a lot that can happen in a neurodivergent person’s day that causes the same sort of trouble.

Two great examples are “meltdowns” and rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD). CBT will get you nowhere with either of these problems and to try is going to turn toxic quickly, in fact.

Think of those ducks out on the water on a beautiful calm day...just swimming, babies following mama, and all is right with the world.

Now imagine a speeding ski boat zooms by about 20 feet away and splashes a huge wave over them all. Mama and babies might be pushed underwater for a brief second, turned around and around in the current while they find their way to the surface and reorient themselves with the mother duck.

That is what these moments of meltdown and RSD are like, and we must throw the CBT out the window in favor of other interventions that can actually bring the client some relief and emotional regulation.

Only then do we return to “thinking about our thinking” and whether or not those thoughts are rational. Sometimes the precipitating event actually does need proper attention, other times we are able to see it does not.

One last (and maybe the most important) point about the metaphor. I did not set out to do this, but it has been a happy side effect that my clients have found themselves using the baby duck imagery as a way to remember self-compassion. And self-compassion is the best CBT modification I know of. (Teaser: my next post will be about a “hot-off-the-press” research article on self-compassion and camouflaging in autistic people).

That’s your introduction to the baby ducks! I hope you enjoy the imagery, and I will talk more about the cuties in future writings!