3 Art Therapy Activities for Late-Identified Autistics
I’m an expressive arts therapist. What does that mean?
It means I’m trained on how to use ALL of the arts for mental health purposes. This includes painting, drawing, clay, writing, singing, dancing, and more.
I could go into all of the benefits of art therapy and why it works in a different way than just talk therapy, but that would take an entire essay and you’re not here for that. You’ll just have to trust me.
I’d like to add an important caveat before you dive into the art activities.
There is a massive difference between doing therapeutic art activities on your own and doing them with a therapist. It’s not considered “art therapy” on your own because you’re not with a therapist who can tailor directives to you, help you glean more insights from your art, notice patterns in how you create and view your art (which are often reflective of how you approach things in right), help you process anything that came up in your art, and design beneficial follow-up art.
All of that said, I get that not everyone can afford or find an art therapist. So I’m going to share a few of the common directives I use with my clients. I’ve grouped them by where you might be at in your journey as a late-identified autistic. I did not come-up with these art activities myself — they exist within the art therapy world of knowledge. I tailored them to the late-identified autistic experience.
