Bristol Autism Support - Spring/Summer 2025
Our second Group Music Therapy project with Bristol Autism Support saw a massive amount of interest.
Our scope was to deliver 12 sessions to a maximum of 6 children across the Spring and Summer school terms. Based on the referrals received from parents, we aimed to explore personal expression, interpersonal interactions, dysregulation and difficult behaviour.
Personal Expression
Throughout the sessions we saw the children develop their own voices within the context of the group, building confidence to express themselves through their language and music with language and music in different activities.
Dysregulation & Masking
The group context allowed some of our group members to explore some of their neurodivergent traits. By providing a space for free expression and one that moved at the pace of the children we saw significant changes in how they managed their dysregulation and masking.
Interpersonal Interactions
We saw changes in how the highest attending group members interacted with each other over the course of the group, providing opportunities to explore conflict, negotiation and compromise, and how to accommodate others in activities that might be overwhelming for them. Supported through musical activities, these changes in how the children interacted was partially due to familiarity, but mostly due to the therapy group acting as a space in which exploring and experimenting with different ways of being themselves and with each other was supported and safe, not only for them but for their peers as well.