Art Therapy for Girls with autism :Sexual Trauma by Kelly Jean Sullivan

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Safe People

A lot of time and energy is spent trying to teach children with autism who the unsafe people are. It is equally important for them to be able to identify who the “safe” people are in the community. Again, this may differ for each child, but some examples could include: parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, the police, a school teacher, a school bus driver or even a minister. Knowing who these people are can assist the child in locating the right person to help when needed.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a response to experiencing or witnessing an overwhelming traumatic event, or series of events and has been acknowledged as one of the long-term effects of child sexual abuse (Briggs & Joyce, 1997)

Art therapy can help clients who are so low they cannot verbalise their feelings directly. Art is a tool to help communicate unconscious issues that can be too hard to talk about directly and can also give an outlet to express frustration and repressed feelings.

• sexual empowerment and feeling connected to one’s body.
• low sexual desire or high sexual desire.
• positive sexuality and sexual expression.
• relationship dischord, disharmony and mismatched libidos.
• positive body and genital image.
• healing trauma related to childhood sexual assault or adult sexual assault.
• PTSD related to domestic violence or assault related trauma.
• sexual and performance anxiety etc.
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Chapman, L., Morabito, D., Ladakakos, C., Schreier, H. & Knudson, M.M. (2001) The effectiveness of art therapy interventions in reducing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in pediatric trauma patients. Art Therapy. 18(2) pp.100-104

Edelson, M.G. (2016). Sexual Abuse of Children with Autism: factors that Increase Risk and Interfere with Recognition of Abuse. Disability Studies Quarterly, 36, 1-16.