5 Expressive Arts Exercises For Autistic Unmasking
For many late-diagnosed Autistic adults, unmasking is both empowering and unsettling. After a lifetime of suppressing Autistic traits to fit into a neurotypical world, the question Who am I beneath this mask? takes center stage. Expressive arts exercises can offer a powerful, nonverbal vehicle to reconnect with your authentic self in a way that feels grounding and embodied. In this post, we’re diving into 5 of my favorite unmasking expressive arts exercises.
1. Exploring the Mask
Medium/SUPPLIES NEEDED
Your choice: mixed media, drawing, paper mache, collage, clay, or digital art
Activity
1 - Draw, collage, or create a 3d mask that represents how you present yourself in public and social situations when wearing your ‘mask.’
Questions to ask yourself while you create:
What expressions, colors, or symbols represent how you show up in the world?
What does autistic masking mean to you?
What memories and thoughts come up?
2 - Create a second mask that represents who you are when you feel the most yourself. You might create an entire second mask or make this one on the back of your first.
Things to think about while you create:
Focus on moments where you are free to take off the mask and embrace all of your unique traits, needs, and experiences. What do these look like?
What expressions, colors, or symbols best represent these moments of authenticity?
What are your earliest memories of joy, curiosity, and expressive freedom?
Reflection
Take a few minutes to sit with your masks and journal on the experience. You might try physically wearing and removing your mask and sitting with the experience.
Journaling prompts:
Sit with both masks and compare them. Take them in from all of your senses. What do you notice? What differences and similarities stand out?
Hold your mask further away and very close up. What do you notice?
Are there parts of your “mask” that feel exhausting to maintain? What are they?
What aspects of your true self do you want to unmask and bring forward more?
2. Sensory Mapping: What Feels Like You
MEDIUM
Your choice: collage, mixed media, movement, photography
Activity
1 - Gather a small collection of materials with different textures, colors, and sensory elements.
This might include fabric, paints, pastels, collage pieces, nature items like feathers, leaves, and stones, or even musical instruments or other items that can facilitate sound-making or movement.
2 - Spend some time with each item and take it in with each of your senses. What do you notice?
To explore visual elements you might hold the object at different angles and distances.
To explore touch, you might explore what it feels like to rub the item with your fingertips or full hand or even what it’s like to rub the item along your skin.
Try making sound with the item. What do you notice? Does it generate a certain rhythm or make you want to move in a certain way?
3 - Use your collected items to create something that feels calming, energizing, or “right” in your body. Go with your gut, whatever first comes to mind, and try not to overthink it.
Some ideas for what this might look like:
Arranging items together and taking a photograph
Creating a collage or visual piece of art
Making sounds or movements with the items
Creating a 3D sculpture with the items
Reflection
Grab a journal, your computer, or a pen and paper and reflect on your experience.
Journaling prompts:
What was this experience like for you? What stood out? What body sensations did you notice?
Do certain colors, shapes, or movements feel particularly authentic to you?
Are there sensory experiences you enjoy or find overwhelming? Are there sensory experiences you’ve been suppressing to fit in?
Did you experience any thoughts or memories while exploring the items or making your art? What was that like for you? Where did you feel it?
3. Freewriting: Who Was I Before Masking?
MEDIUM
Your choice: writing - poetry, storytelling, or journaling
Activity
1 - Grab a journal or pen and paper and set a time for 5-10 minutes. Write about your childhood self before you were aware of the need to mask.
Things to think about:
How did you move your body, play, and communicate?
What did you love and enjoy? What activities, people, and experiences brought you positivity?
What activities helped you feel confident and connected to yourself?
If this activity feels difficult or you cannot remember details of your childhood, you might try writing a letter or poem to your younger self. What do you want them to know now that you know you are autistic?
2 - When time is up read when you just wrote and reflect on what comes up for you. You might even choose to read this aloud or share it with someone you trust.
Reflection
After reading back what you wrote, what emotions or memories surface?
4. Movement as Self-Expression: What Does Unmasking Feel Like?
MEDIUM
Your choice: Dance, body movement, or visualization + paper and a color marking medium (paint, pastels, markers, crayons, etc.)
Activity
1 - In a safe, private place, put on music that resonates with you, or if you prefer to move in silence, keep things quiet.
2- Feel the music (or silence) and let your body move in a way that feels natural and authentic to you. If you don’t feel comfortable or cannot do it physically, you might visualize the experience while sitting still instead. Do this for as long as feels right.
Things to Know:
You do not need to move in a way that looks “acceptable” to others.
You might dance, rock, stim, pace, flap, sway, spin - whatever feels right to you.
If you get stuck, imagine what it would feel like to move without self-consciousness and lean into that.
3 - With your art supplies ready (paper + mark-making tools of choice), continue your experience of movement and sound by creating a gestural image. Choose the colors that best represent this experience, and using gestural movement, make marks on the paper. You might do this with one hand or two. It’s not about the image you make - instead, focus on the experience of movement and the sounds putting these movements to paper.
Reflection
Grab a journal, your computer, or a pen and paper, and reflect on your experience.
Journaling prompts:
What was the experience of making art by movement and sound instead of by image like for you?
What sensations did you notice?
If you were to give your gestural image a title, what would it be?
5. Storytelling Through Art: Your Unmasking Timeline
MEDIUM
Your choice: comic strip, digital art, illustration/drawing, or video storytelling
Activity
1 - Reflect on the key moments in your life related to masking and unmasking. Think about times when you felt your full self vs. times you felt pressure to conform or fit in.
2 - Using your medium of choice, visually map out these key moments in your life. You might do this in a single image, by creating a comic strip, storybook, or even video.
As you create, let the images tell a story, weaving together these key moments of your life.
3 - Continue your story into another image, page, or comic strip panel, representing the version of yourself that you are working toward.
As you create, consider:
Where are you going? Where do you want to be?
Think about what it means to unmask. What does this look like?
Reflection
Grab a journal and reflect on your experience.
Journaling prompts:
Is there anything about your story that stands out to you?
What sensations, emotions, and thoughts come up when you sit with the image of your continued story?
If you were to pick a symbol that represents your whole story, what would it be?
Unmasking with the Expressive Arts
Unmasking is an ongoing process, one of continually trying things on and reintroducing yourself to your most authentic self. The expressive arts can give you the freedom to explore this space without pressure, expectations, or the need for words.
📩 Want support on your unmasking journey? I offer neurodivergent-affirming expressive arts therapy and coaching to help you reconnect with yourself in a way that feels safe and empowering. Learn more here.