Adulting on the Spectrum

"Adulting on the Spectrum:

Challenges in Treatment"

with

Lisa Thomas, SCPsyA, LPAT, LPC, ACS, ATCS

Brown Bag Lunch Series

April 17th 2024 12:00 - 1:00 pm

On Zoom – 1 CE

No Fee - Suggested Donation Welcomed

Registration

Join Lisa Thomas exploring challenges of “Adulting" on the Spectrum”, and cases where ideas of Adulting seem almost impossible and terrifying for patients and parents. Ms. Thomas describes how therapist's feelings in sessions, can seem powerful, yet indescribable in words. This parallels the patient's sense of emotional disconnectedness in their world. The therapist's openness to joining in a sense of bewilderment is a foothold in the therapeutic relationship.

Learn, with Lisa, how using this shared bond of verbal and nonverbal communication can be an effective tool promoting a sense of safety while navigating the adulting transition. Discover how connecting with what patients feel frustrating, like indescrible ideas or feelings, can be a clinical advantage, opening emotional doors. Understanding that another person is willing to struggle through confusion and unknowing together, provides a powerful foundation of safety.

We can imagine an adolescent sinking into negativity as a torturous way to escape a more painful reality - self-blame and self-loathing. it is much easier to blame a negligent or assaulting world than oneself. How do we help these young adults understand they have choices, can plan and steer their own path?

First, you must dream, then desire, then take the risk to seek. Otherwise you can be sure it won't happen.

Often, too, feelings such as rejection, incompetence, and blankness may represent a more secure emotional space for these young adults than the threat of independence and self-advocacy. Learn interventions to help balance these needs in the therapeutic relationship as Ms. Thomas describes her fascinating cases.

Lisa Thomas,

SCPsyA, LPAT, LPC, ACS, ATCS

Lisa Thomas is a certified Art Therapist and Modern Psychoanalyst with an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has worked in private practice in Livingston, NJ for 15 years, and as an art therapist and clinical supervisor in a psychiatric hospital for 23 years. Lisa also supervises art therapy and psychodynamic therapy interns at the hospital. Since 2018, she has been a founding member, supervisor, and Administrative Director of iStrive, a program aimed at helping young adults on the autism spectrum.