K1700986

I am a mental health therapist and have just learned I have aphantasia! I can tell you that throughout school, being taught visualization strategies seemed pretty darn silly to me..I thought clients were just supposed to see black and talk about what a beach would look like. I'm amazed to be learning it's different for other people. Problem solving skills, creating steps and using visual aides are helpful to me. Planning for the future has always been hard for me to figure out..I'm now learning that seeing how other people do things helps me so I can see what a finished product looks like. I think what's so so important for therapists to remember is that not everyone perceives the world the same - take time to find out how your client does and the strengths in their thought process before suggesting strategies 

I am not a parent but I have just experienced the revelation of having Aphantasia and was talking with coworkers about how helpful this would have been to know as a kid. Kudos to you for being so proactive! I think how this effected me the most school wise was really having to take a ton more notes than my peers and remembering information through repetition and kinetic learning