Autism and expressive arts therapy
I offer expressive arts therapy sessions for ASD individuals, as an inter-modal approach to therapy, that can incorporate the following creative modalities.
Music therapy
Music therapy interventions have been found to help young ASD patients improve the development of their social skills, reduce their level of anxiety, enhance their self-regulatory abilities and accelerate their communication skills development.
Generally, music is a cultural universal and usually has no pre-requisites hence can be easily adapted to satisfy the needs and preferences of all people.
Music therapy has several interventions which can be altered to reflect each patient’s musical preferences and levels of skill. These interventions include individual interventions such as Musical Dialogues and Musical Emotions and group-based interventions which include musical improvisation jams and welcome songs.
Visual arts therapy
Visual arts therapy involves the expression of one’s emotions, oneself, and view of the world through images.
People with ASD have been found to benefit from visual arts therapy as it provides a platform to express oneself without speaking any words.
Individual interventions here include scribble drawing, and feeling masks while group-based intervention include hand drawings and self-collages.
Dance-movement therapy
Dance-movement therapy is characterized by the use of expressive elements of dance and movement in away that intervenes in the situations faced by ASD individuals and assess the nature of their conditions.
Dance-movement therapy is diverse in its application and like music, dance and movement are even more universal since they can be received and perceived by all without any prior understanding as well as the fact that dance therapy represents non-verbal communication which is practiced by every single person.
Individual dance-movement therapy interventions include non-verbal attunement, dancing broom and one-to-one mirror dance; while their group-based counterparts include group mirror dances and name dances.
Drama therapy
Drama therapy helps promote social interaction among people with ASD in a playful and gentle manner.
Drama therapy interventions promote the expression of feelings, boundaries and needs using role plays, play writing and creative improvisation.
Individual interventions include role plays and puppet creation while group-based intervention include animal characters and group stories.
Story Telling
Story Telling is used for children with speech, language and communication difficulties. Story telling helps an ASD child to choose and sequence information to (re) tell a story or everyday narrative. It can also help with their general understanding, understanding of question words and vocabulary development.
If you are looking for a therapist who connects speech and language development with social, emotional and creative goals, I am here to help.