Being Fun Therapist is Fun: Working with a 11 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome

I am working with a child, 11 years, diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He loves football and plays for his school. We talk about everything under the sky. We do crazy experiments like putting Mentos in Coke to see the effect. We blow bubbles with straw and make mountains of it, we sit in a pool of balls and have ball juggling competitions. We dance on songs and even tried ball dance with each other. Lots of laughs!! He dared to do it. Our present interest is Musical Instruments. He Is learning tabla, and I am learning mouth organ using you tube. It's not easy to learn something new, but it's fun. So why not try!! He asks me what kind of a therapist am I? I say I am a fun therapist. 

One of the therapy sessions, we were playing Truth and Dare. So I got to ask him a question in Truth, where in I asked him "Do you like coming to me for this class? If Yes, why? "

There was a long silence. So I redirected after a while saying, I asked Do you like coming to me? The answer can be a yes or a no. Feel free to say what you feel. He said, "I like talking to you.”

Another session, he said something and I said, "you can share anything that comes to your heart with me. We have become friends. I like it." And he said, yes Ma'am, you are my diary." I felt so overwhelmed when he said it. I told him I feel so happy you said that.

Co-creating Joy together through Play and increasing positive experiences together is the foundation. A dialogue, without judgments and with opinions and suggestions works well in therapy also. Thank you Ikeda Sensei for helping me learn this.