Talk Description
When we cannot “name it to tame it,” we need strategies to help children, young people, and neurodivergent individuals of all ages “express it to address it.” Expressive arts therapy provides action-oriented practices that bypass language, giving children and youth restorative ways to communicate their lived experiences in “neuro-affirming” ways. These approaches also support capacity-- moments of resiliency, mastery, confidence, curiosity, self-compassion, joy, and self-agency. They are essential experiences for those who may not necessarily feel comfortable with or respond to neurotypical ways of expressing, relating, learning, or interacting. This keynote will also introduce the presenter’s own lived experiences with neurodiversity and how this personal narrative supported a restorative life journey to develop and research arts and sensory-based neuro-affirming interventions and programming.