Understanding Holistic Autism Health – Autism Parenting Magazine

A therapist and interventionist share their “Eight Pillars of Holistic Health” to help special needs families nurture wellbeing.

For too many years, the full-body impact on people living with autism has been ignored. Holistic interventions support whole-body health. Many areas of research can help us widen the lens on autism, move away from outdated behavioral interventions, and move towards more holistic and family-focused approaches.

To move forward with progressive interventions, we need to consider the whole life and whole body of an autistic person. We want to support the entire family in the best way possible so that autistic individuals can live healthier, more regulated lives.

Here are 8 pillars of holistic health, based on a wide range of scientific research, that can support emotional regulation and whole-body health.

1. Positive connection time

How we connect is the most important of all the pillars. Why? Because the human brain is profoundly social. A huge autism myth is that autistics are not social, and it is time to bust that myth wide open.

Stress and anxiety are often barriers to a person’s social ability, and we should not see this as a lack of desire to feel connected. We tell parents and professionals to join children in activities they love, to follow the child’s lead. Drop your ideas about what’s ‘normal’ and just join in with your children. Meet them where they are and not where you wish them to be. Share joy, share laughter, strive for as much positive connection time as possible. The human brain perceives this as safety, making everything else easier.

So, from a therapeutic perspective, we tell parents to plan connected time. To make it a priority. You will see and feel a shift, we promise you.

2. Sleep

Sleep is an essential pillar of health. Sleep is the great equalizer; no one can do anything well without sleep, especially autistic individuals. We cannot be social or regulate emotions without sleep, and at a deep cellular level, we can even become unwell. We know sleep is a very challenging issue in the autism community.

When one person is not sleeping well, it impacts everyone in a home, causing a chain reaction on physical and mental health. The inability to sleep or stay asleep is often a stress response. The world is overwhelming for those on the spectrum, and this daily stress can show itself at bedtime.

When we work to lower stressors in the daytime, sleep will often improve. But if it doesn’t, it is essential to reach out to a holistic medical professional to intervene.

3. Play

All children need play; it is how they make sense of their world, learn how to take risks, and discover joy. There is a play deficit in our culture, and our autistic children are feeling this too.

When our kids get their autism diagnosis, more often than not, their days fill up rapidly with therapies and specialist appointments. When we hear: “Your child needs 30-40 weekly hours of ABA,” we need to ask, “But where is the time for play?”

Sadly, autistic play is often misunderstood, discouraged, or pathologized, and then dismissed. A holistic intervention plan must include connected, child-directed, joy-filled play. It is as important as sleeping and eating for children.

4. Become an emotional guide

Emotions are part of the human experience, and when adults support and cultivate emotionally rich spaces, magical things can happen. We like to teach families about the normality of emotions and how we need to move away from labeling them as ‘negative’ or ‘positive.’ We also want people to feel the full range of emotions: the beginning, middle, and end of each wave.

Our culture mistakenly believes quiet, compliant children are calm children. We also falsely believe that being happy all the time is our mental health goal.

When adults help children label emotions and feel the sensations connected to emotions, we support emotional regulation and emotional awareness. This adult-led guidance will ultimately support whole-body mental health.

5. Super nutrition

We know nutrition is a challenging topic due to the extreme picky eating that most autistic children live with each day. Sensory issues can make eating the most complex thing we expect autistic children to do each day. To make a difficult matter even more complicated, our kids are usually drawn to foods low in nutritional value like chicken nuggets, pizza, and French fries.

The truth is that autistics need a supercharged, nutritionally dense diet due to all the stressors in their lives, but so often, picky eating can make this impossible. There are ways to help broaden children’s food experiences, but it can take lots of time with a deep understanding of how hard this is for them.

We suggest seeing a holistic nutritionist or naturopathic doctor who has experience with sensory issues to discuss adding quality supplements to your child’s diet. Too much sugar and nutritional deficiencies masquerade as behavioral struggles and health issues.

6. Family-focused self-care

Nobody can prepare you for the emotions that come with parenting special needs children. Here is what we know to be missing in our special needs world: parental self-care.
Parents need deep, even radical, self-compassion practices. So often, professionals are so concerned about the deficits of autistic children that no one is looking at the emotional crisis happening in the lives of the parents and overall family.

Parents of special needs children need to make sure they are on the family care list so they can do this big job each day. Parents need breaks, support, exercise, sleep, supercharged nutrition, and connection time with friends.

7. Learn brain and body science

It is such an exciting time in the world of brain science. Nervous system science and brain imaging have really helped us dive deeper into understanding behaviors. This science tells us it is time to move away from antiquated behavior modification strategies.

We can now reframe behaviors and emotions for what they really are—a communication of nervous system states. Understanding brain and body science helps us see beyond the behavior to what is really happening, then respond from an informed place. This learning is a true game-changer for families.

8. Learn the power of co-regulation

No person in a family operates in isolation, and all of our moods are contagious. There is so much fantastic science highlighting the need for adults to start using their personal nervous systems to help regulate another person’s emotional state.

When we create our own calmness, we can then lend it to others. In the same way, we need to be very aware that adults also share our stress and chaos with others. When we know the science of co-regulation, everything can change for the better.

We know how powerful families can be to support the whole-body health of our loved ones living on the autism spectrum; we see it each day. We tell families to start with small adjustments and know that when we focus on one pillar, sometimes the others will naturally follow.

Happy Holistic Whole-Body Health!