Davis Autism Approach
The Davis Autism Approach consists of 3 main stages.
The first stage: individuation - the ability to perceive oneself as a person, separate from others.
The Davis method offers a sound adjustment of orientation (focus). This is a stereo sound that must be listened to with headphones and for a sufficiently long time. The sound gradually opens up the possibility of finding yourself in a new state - a state of orientation (or focus) on the physical world around and your own physical body. This is a state where your own body and the surrounding physical world are perceived separately from the inner, imaginary world. Many people with autism describe this state as very calm and pleasant. Like silence in the head, like a kind of balance. At the same time, the previous, autistic state, in which there is a lot of creative and intellectual energy, remains. But there is a choice of which of these states is beneficial to be in at the moment.
The client goes through this stage independently, before the program.
The second stage: personality development.
After the first stable changes in the client's behaviour have appeared as a result of listening to the sound, it is time to work with the Davis facilitator.
First, the client learns to control the new sense of focus, to call it up independently, without sound. This is the first new tool - orientation tool. There are also two additional tools that allow you to focus in any life situations.
Next, when the client has the opportunity to look at the real world around without the distortions that imagination brings, we begin to study the basic relationships on which this world is based.
For this, there are 35 Davis concepts.
- concepts of the physical world: I (in the form of 3 parts: body, mind and lifeforce), interoception (checking what all three parts of my body are doing at the moment), feeling, change, consequences, cause and effect, before and after, time, sequence (5 types, including by sequence of arbitrary order and sequence by importance), order and disorder.
We first mold these concepts out of plasticine for a clear understanding. And then we begin to look for the experience of these concepts in the environment, "living through" these concepts. As a result, the client learns to notice these concepts in the surrounding world, adjusting his internal filter to a new perception.
- concepts of the cognitive world (the world of thought). Here, the opportunity to analyze and classify information through the work of the brain appears. We consider how our brain reacts to the surrounding world, how we remember information, what thoughts are - all this is studied and explored through the following concepts: continue, survive, perception, thought, experience in the form of understanding, knowledge and wisdom.
- concepts of the world of instincts (the world of feelings, the world of emotions). This is what forms the world of our emotions. And here the following concepts come to the rescue: urge, energy, force, emotion, want, need, intention.
We mold all these concepts out of plasticine in 3-dimensionality, and then begin to explore them in the surrounding world, using ourselves and other people as an example. Exploring concepts in the surrounding world is a VERY important part of the program! During the program, we plant sprouts of life experience through certain concepts, but the task of EVERY person is to INDEPENDENTLY develop and grow huge plants of life experience to equalize psychological and physiological age. Therefore, the results of the program do not appear immediately, the program has a more cumulative effect, although, of course, small changes appear immediately.
Then come concepts that unite the work of all 3 worlds: the physical body, the world of thought and the world of emotions. These are concepts: motivation, ability and control. And the concept of responsibility harmonizes all of the above.
After this, there are a number of exercises for practicing taking responsibility and putting things in order in ANY situation.
Then we take a break to give the person with autism the opportunity to observe themselves and the world, to gain the necessary life experience. Usually this is 1-2 months. And only then do we move on to the next stage.
The third stage: social integration.
The last 14 concepts allow us to understand different types of social relations: another, others, emotions, behaviour, relationships (including those built on trust, believe, agreement, rules), good/bad, right/wrong.
But what kind of relationships can there be without feelings? There are no bad or good feelings, all feelings bring us information. We study the information coming from our feelings in the form of concepts: joy, anger, sadness, fear.
And the cherry on the cake is the final concepts: affinity and we. When from such two different people, a common feeling of we appears...
This is where the program ends and independent growth of life experience begins, in a focused state, based on a new internal structure.
After the program, post-program encounters are possible.
