Creative Arts & Therapeutic Play Therapy for Autism, ADHD & PDA

Creative arts and therapeutic Play therapy for autism, adhd, pathological demand avoidance and children’s mental health in Suffolk

Both therapeutic play and creative arts therapy are both effective therapeutic interventions for neurodivergent children.

Find out more below about how both Therapies can help your neurodivergent child.

Play regardless of the diagnosis is the most natural language of all children. It is the most innate process for children to express troubling thoughts and feelings that are both conscious and unconscious. 

Play is symbolic in how a child expresses themselves, this means that words are not needed from a child in order for creative arts and therapeutic play based therapy to work, this is ideal for children who are non-verbal, have selective mutism or do not have the language skills in order to fully express themselves. 

Therapeutic Play based therapy is evidence based and has been shown to help neurodivergent and Autistic Children with their ability to:

• Regulate their emotions,
• Improve understanding of social navigation
• Improve emotional expression  
• Improve reactive and symbolic play communication
• Provide improvement in the parent/child relationship 
• Relationship development
• Emotional literacy
• Improve play types such as constructive play, pretend play, functional play and sensorimotor play 
• Improve mental health, such as anxiety, grief, aggressiveness, emotional based school avoidance, and OCD. 
• Work with interoception (our bodies 8th sense, how we feel bodily sensations)
• Reduce problem behaviours and 
• Improve self worth and self esteem.

Therapeutic play and creative arts based therapy is done individually or working with the Parent and child. Generally we start with a child-led non-directive approach, allowing the child to get to know their environment and their therapist and feel safe enabling them to tell their story. 

Once a child feels more comfortable the therapist may work more directly with the child, using specific interventions, toys and games to steer the therapy. Kinsley tailors each therapy session specifically to each individual child and Kinsley may use one or both methods of working depending on the individual needs and goals for each individual. 

The therapy sessions may involve techniques that can include:

• Sandtray 
• Board games
• Story telling
• Role-playing
• Creative visualisation
• Puppets and masks
• Dolls or favourite animal figures
• Crafts and paints
• Clay and play doh
• Lego 
• and much more

Book a discovery call today to find out more!