Sunday, June 22, 2008

Working with adults and teens

I plan to move into an adult practice during the next year. My husband and I are looking at a possible site for the clinic today. We will offer Interactive Metronome, Therapeutic Listening, Samonas Listening, psycho-therapy, and sensory integration therapy.

It is interesting for me to see and compare the difference in working with adults versus children. The poor folks who were sensory kids, but did not get therapy are now sensory adults who have self-adapted to the world around them and may still have a lot of difficulties in coping, adapting and interacting. The therapies that I use with children work with adults. The biggest problem is simply reducing the accumulated baggage that an adult has from years of dealing with physical, mental and sensory issues in the form of praxis, autism/Asperger's syndrome, and/or overall poor inter connectivity to the world and other people. Having access to psycho-therapy will help.
I am expecting to see fewer adult clients with autism than I do in my pediatric practice, but this will be offset by clients with traumatic brain disorder (TBI) and aging-related problems including stroke. I expect the same number of sensory-related issues and the issue of self-regulation will still play out strongly. For outcomes: those with auditory issues will be able to relax and be less volatile, those with vestibular issues will appear to be smarter and will probably act-out less. Those with social issues will lose fear of social situations and pay attention to social rules. Folks with TBI will find increased organization.

I'm not sure what to expect with teenagers. Probably a mixture of everything but stroke. And probably plenty of clients with autism.

My study of the adult parents of children with autism is near completion. There are still 2 post-tests to complete and then we can look at the results.

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