Neurodivergent-affirming therapeutic arts practice

Freya Pinney

Abstract 

As a neurodivergent therapeutic arts practitioner, I explore the impact of double empathy in creating dissonance within/when companioning people I work with. This leads me to accepting my bias around working with my own neurokin. Reflections on a philosophically collaborative approach explore three neurodivergent-affirming therapeutic art practice sessions that include education on Autistic culture and norms. Images and descriptions offer insight into how art therapy supports the understanding, acceptance and affirming of neurodivergent identity within this relationship. I then reflect on the positive impact on self-expression and social engagement when the double empathy problem and ableism are overcome.

Keywords

Therapist lived experience, companioning, double empathy, neurodivergent, neurodivergent affirming, art therapy, Autism

Neurodivergent-affirming therapeutic arts practice

There is something magical in the meeting of neurodivergent people.

There is something overwhelming in the meeting of neurodivergent people.

There is something energetic in the meeting of neurodivergent people.

As a neurodivergent (Autistic) art therapist I am open about this with my employer and it is transparently located in my promotional material so that families and participants are aware of this before they meet me. I have for some time wondered about the role I play as a neurodivergent (Autistic) art therapist in the lives of Autistic people I work with. For some families, their attraction to working with me is literally to meet an Autistic person with a job. For many families there is a curious wonder about what I will be like. Will I look disabled? Will I be similar or different to them? Will what feels like the last hope of finding someone who is ‘like’ them be another disappointment? Will they be accepted? Are they Autistic enough for me to see it in them? Will I be Autistic enough for them to trust me? And then there is all the sensory nightmares of what art therapy might be.

At this time in Australia, access to funded support for Autistic children and/or adults through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is linked to goals. This means that initial contact is usually centred on specific goals, such as helping the Autistic person to understand their feelings/emotions, learn to express and communicate these, and to improve their behaviour. Inquiries are often accompanied by a comment such as “and [they like] to draw or paint”. What follows is a series of conversations between me and an individual, parent or carer about whether they/the participant knows they are Autistic and what this means for them. This is scaffolded by the introduction of my own Autism and what this means in terms of my ways of communicating and being neurodivergent. I am upfront that I see and experience things differently and that I will encourage other Autistic people to learn about our neurodivergent culture and help others in their immediate lives to also embrace this.

To be neurodivergent-affirming within therapeutic art practice we need to connect people to their neurodivergent community: connect them to their own culture, language and support. This might look like learning about how they experience emotions. This could mean accepting the language they use to communicate, whether that is behaviour, vocalising, gesture, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), words, images or whatever their preferences are. This will mean leaving the therapist’s understanding of ‘normal' at the door and prioritising the inquirer’s expertise over our own experiencing. This may mean recognising neurodivergent discourses and being able to give someone the language that positions their experiences as normal. This means always prioritising their sensory needs and understanding these as they are linked to neurology, rather than trauma or preferences.

Neurodivergent people living within a neurotypical world learn multiple ways of being. In order to function within the broader society we are forced to engage with neurotypical culture, language and behaviour. Additionally, our own neurodivergent ways of being are measured against these neurotypical standards. Creative arts therapists are also educated into a therapy culture that privileges particular ways of expressing, experiencing and considering somatic experiences, interpersonal relationships, communication and emotions. This extends to how we are taught to express ourselves and how we are treated therapeutically. Understanding human relationships and communication within one framework of ‘normal’ creates a privileged position for those that are neurotypical. This invisible privilege positions those outside of ‘normal’ as invalid, often leading to discrimination. This is ableism. We all participate in ableism, as many neurodivergent individuals also judge themselves against neurotypical standards (this is known as internalised ableism). However, many of us live with a critical awareness of invisible neurotypical privilege (ableism). Being open to what this means can be challenging. Throughout this article I invite you to consider your own experiences and be open to the possibility of your own ableism. But what if we can create a frame of reference for neurodivergent-affirming therapeutic practice?

This paper begins an exploration of how I work as a neurodivergent therapeutic arts practitioner. It is auto-ethnographic and self-reflective and I hope that documenting this contributes to the development of a lively discourse within creative arts therapies around how we work as Autistic people and with Autistic people.

Notes on language

As a practitioner I use the terms ‘inquirer’ for therapy participant (client) and ‘companion’ for therapist to represent the nature of how I work alongside someone in mutual respect and therapeutic co-inquiry. ‘Companioning’ is to work therapeutically with someone supporting their creative arts process. ‘Inquiring’ is exploring or researching through creative arts processes. ‘Co-inquiry’ refers to what emerges in the therapeutic space between the inquirer (client/participant) and companion (therapist).

Articulating my Autistic perspective through an inquiry into wordiness

When inquiring into my neurodivergent approach to therapeutic arts practice, my access point is words and wordiness. I inherently experience words as the vehicle of articulation, of understanding and expression. Words mediate my existence in the world. My use of words is both empowering and limiting. I have a social communication disability. My Autistic neurology is me – it is my wiring and my identity. It is not a disorder, illness, or accessory. It fundamentally underpins who I am, how I think, express, and receive language and how I experience everything. My values, ethics, somatic experiencing, relationships, use of materials, and sensory and emotional processing are inherently Autistic. However, the interaction between myself and another is mediated through words as a meeting point of interaction and clarification (not, of course, in the spaces of felt sense, transference, or co-creation). It is these distinctions that are explored here in relation to companioning, or working therapeutically with another in creative arts inquiry (represented through poetic forming and Figure 1).

Too many words

Filling space

Seeking

Seeking understanding

Grounding myself

Entering their channel

Modifying, bounding, sharing

Compelled to immerse and understand

Words are the vehicle and the journey is a good one

Driving along a path of the unknown

Sharing this journey

Inhabiting the journey

Unravelling roads

It is loud in the silence

Screaming in colours

Breathing thoughts