ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the experience of two years’ play in therapy with a teenager who has a diagnosis of autism and ADHD. As the play progresses, both client and therapist shift through enactments of hunting, war, prison life, drunken generals, and grannies wielding hockey sticks. This chapter examines the fundamental purpose of play for an adolescent boy as he approaches adulthood. It highlights the importance of understanding and responding to the autistic body/mind, rather than working to pre-imagined ideas of what therapy entails. This sometimes-disorientating process is structured through the natural evolution of a co-created therapy contract.
