Davis Autism Approach

The Davis program for helping people with autism consists of three main stages.

The first stage: individuation - the ability to perceive oneself as an individual, separate from others.

The Davis method offers an auditory orientation (focus) adjustment. This involves listening to stereo sound, preferably with headphones, for a considerable amount of time. The sound gradually opens up the possibility of entering a new state – a state of focus on the physical world around and one's own physical body. This is a state where one's 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, 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 now there is a choice of which of these states is more beneficial to be in at any given moment.

This stage is completed by the client independently, before the program begins.

Second stage: personal development

After the initial stable changes in the client's behaviour resulting from listening to the sound, it's time to work with a Davis facilitator.

First, the client learns to control the new sense of focus, to evoke it independently, without the sound. This is the first new tool – focusing. There are also two additional tools that allow one to focus in any life situation.

Next, when the client is able to look at the real world around them without the distortions brought about by imagination, we begin to study the fundamental interconnections 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, thoughts, and feelings), 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 sequence of arbitrary order and sequence of importance), order and disorder.

We first model these concepts from clay for a clear understanding. Then we begin to look for experiences of these concepts in the surrounding environment, experiencing these concepts. As a result, the client learns to notice these concepts in the surrounding world, adjusting their internal filter to a new perception.

- Concepts of the cognitive world (the world of thought). Here, the possibility of analyzing and classifying information through the work of the brain emerges. 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 and lifeforce (the world of feelings, the world of emotions). This is what shapes the world of our emotions. And here the following concepts come to the rescue: urge, energy, power, emotion, want, need, intention.

We model all these concepts from clay in three dimensions, and then begin to explore them in the surrounding world, using ourselves and other people as examples. Exploring concepts in the surrounding world is a VERY important part of the program! In the program, we plant the seeds of life experience through specific concepts, but the task of EACH person is to INDEPENDENTLY develop and grow huge plants of life experience to align their psychological and physiological age. Therefore, the results of the program do not appear immediately; the program has more of a cumulative effect, although, of course, small changes appear immediately.

Next come the concepts that unite the work of all three worlds: the physical body, the world of thought, and the world of emotions and lifeforce. These are the concepts of: motivation, ability, and control. And the concept of responsibility harmonizes everything mentioned above.

After that, there are a number of exercises for practicing taking responsibility and bringing order to ANY situation.

Then we take a break to allow the person with autism to observe themselves and the world, to gain the necessary life experience. This usually lasts 1-2 months. And only then do we move on to the next stage.

Third stage: social integration and feelings

The last 14 concepts allow us to understand different types of social relationships and concepts such as the other, others, emotions, behaviour, relationships (including those built on trust, belief, agree, rules), good/bad, right/wrong.

And what kind of relationships can there be without feelings? There are no bad or good feelings; all feelings carry information for us. We study the information coming from our feelings in the form of concepts: joy, anger, sadness, fear.

And the cherry on top is the concluding concepts: affinity and "we". When from two such different people, a common "we" emerges...

This concludes the program, and the independent accumulation of life experience begins, in a focused state, based on a new internal structure.

Post-program meetings are also avaliable.

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