An Arts-Based Inquiry into Autistic Meltdown

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Gumert, L. (2026). An Arts-Based Inquiry into Autistic Meltdown. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v26i1.4463

Publication date: 3 Mar 2026 Added to AutiHub: 23 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Lynn Gumert *

Abstract

This arts-based inquiry aims to evoke empathy and understanding of autistic meltdown by exploring representations in various artistic modalities of my personal meltdown experiences. I also reflect on the process by which three creative arts therapists created artistic responses to my multimedia video about meltdown. I chose to explore this topic through artistic expression because meltdown is an intense sensory and emotional experience that is hard to capture in everyday language but may be more expressible through artistic modalities. An arts-based inquiry into autistic meltdowns is meaningful because the experience has rarely been studied from the perspective of an autistic adult, even though meltdowns are a significant part of autistic experience. Meltdowns are misunderstood and pathologized by non-autistic individuals, who are referred to as allistic individuals within the autistic community. In addition, therapists often treat meltdowns as behaviors to be punished or eliminated. The reflections by the allistic creative arts therapists, however, show that the meltdown video created empathy and increased understanding and a desire to create a soothing space in which to keep the autistic person safe and protect their privacy during their meltdown.

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 23 Aug 2026 22:20.

Cited references
35
With a DOI
25
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
10
3 / 35 (8.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
10 / 35 (28.6%)
References with detected author names
25 / 35 (71.4%)
Without detected author names
10
Without a structured title
10
Without a stable identifier
10
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
95
From DOI or external metadata
95
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
2
Raw names still to review
8
43 / 95 (45.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 52 / 95 (54.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
7 / 95 (7.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 7 / 43 (16.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 6 / 91 (6.6%).
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