Week 5
Week 5 — Neurodivergence
Behavior is communication, not automatically pathology or defiance.
Neurodivergence sequence
Week 5 Takeaway
See the child before the diagnosis, understand the function before changing the behavior, and adapt therapy to the child's nervous system rather than demanding that the child adapt to therapy.
Week 6
Week 6 — Expressive Arts Modalities
Play, art, sand, clay, music, stories, symbols and metaphor can function as clinical languages when words are insufficient.
Oaklander / Fried process
Sandtray — the six-step protocol
2. Introduction to client
Low-demand, non-prescriptive invitation.
Keep the instruction open. Prescriptive prompts ('build your family') narrow the field and import your hypothesis into the child's tray.
Choose your invitation
Same tray, two lenses
The sandtray is the modality. The therapist's theoretical orientation influences how it is processed.
A 10-year-old builds a walled compound on the left with three human figures inside. On the right, a lone wolf faces away. A bridge is started between them but left unfinished. A small child figure is placed on top of the wall.
- “If this wolf could speak, what would it say?”
- “Be the child on the wall. What is it like up there right now?”
- “What do you notice in your body as you look at the unfinished bridge?”
- “The inside and the outside feel very different. Say more about each.”
- “Does anything in this world feel familiar to you?”
Gestalt
Here-and-now experience, affect, body, awareness, polarities, integration, giving miniatures a voice.
Adlerian
Belonging, significance, family roles, goals of behavior, lifestyle and private logic, connection, capability, courage.
Depression & suicidality
EXPRESSION ≠ RISK ASSESSMENT
Never diagnose suicidality from artwork, symbols or play alone.
- 1Expressive material raises concern
- 2Therapist explores directly and developmentally appropriately
- 3Clinical safety / risk assessment
- 4Appropriate intervention & safety response