Dr. Bruce Allen, PhD

Dr. Bruce Allen is a lovely psychologist. Just a fantastic guy with an excellent sense of humor. I agree with him that people shouldn’t be labeled. I am aware that certain diagnosis are required by State Governments in order to receive certain benefits. For this reason people get confused believing these guidelines have something to do with receiving psychological therapy. My son suffers with symptoms of autism too. He too would have been afraid to sit in that chair. Literally interpreted that chair was off limits after a joke that it was an electric chair. But few people outside us Moms that raised such literal thinkers comprehend that way of thinking and adjust their conversation to avoid such pitfalls. I just wanted to put that out there so people can understand Dr. Allen is a great therapist, he is interested in the people he sees, not the pidgin holes the rest of the world wants to put people in.

Help me sort through my thoughts and find answers. I love Dr. Allen

Dr. Allen listens deeply and I feel cared for in the session.

Before I could even sit down for our first appointment, Dr. Allen told me not to worry because he had turned off the electrical current to the chair. I recoiled in horror and instead of sitting, I immediately examined the chair. The chair had a wooden frame and a thin cushion. There were no electrical devices attached to the chair nor did it make sense that this chair would be used for electroshock therapy since any shock would have been administered to the buttocks. Current practices for electroshock therapy involve placing a device on the patient's forehead to stimulate the prefrontal cortex, not shocking one's lower backside. I said as much to Dr. Allen who subsequently explained that he had been joking. He made this joke without having read my patient history information. If he had read my information, he would have seen that I am on the high performing autistic spectrum and as such, am highly literal. I spent the rest of the session mentally fretting over the chair. After… learning that I was autistic, Dr. Allen also dismissed this disability as simply being a "label." I would respectfully point out that the term "psychologist" is also a "label" though I must wonder whether this is an appropriate label for Dr. Allen. As it turns out, Dr. Allen said that he is not the "type of psychologist" who performs diagnoses. How can he not perform diagnoses? He's a clinical psychologist. According to the APA (American Psychological Association), part of his job is supposed to involve the administration and interpretation of tests to help identify the way a person thinks or behaves so that he can better define a course of treatment.