self-expression

From self- +‎ expression.

self-expression (countable and uncountable, plural self-expressions)

1. The means by which one's personal characteristics are displayed; showing one's internal beliefs or character by means of external actions/changes.
   • 2021, Erin Felepchuk, “Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19: (Re)negotiating Autistic Sensory Regulation During a Pandemic”, in Disability Studies Quarterly‎^[1], volume 41, number 3, archived from the original on 22 January 2022:

     Medical culture constrains stimming through strict clinical designations and pathologizing definitions, referring to it as stereotypies or "self-stimulatory behaviours." Autistic people, however, often define stimming more broadly as repetitive sensory practices used to regulate emotional states, to cope with external sensory stimuli, or for purposes of self-expression.