I’m excited to share that our PDA Therapy Collaborative is preparing a new roundtable for January where we will share our conversation and discussion with all of you.

In the new year I will continue to post the remainder of my Guide to PDA affirming therapy. This past April I taught these skills to a small group of professionals and the writing emerged from teaching this class.

This coming year I will have the opportunity to present a webinar on PDA to the NASW Maine chapter and The Massachusetts Federation for Children with Special Needs Visions Symposium.

There is a large need in the PDA community to develop wider networks of professional collaboration for process learning and to elevate good effective practice.

But, believe me, I never imagined creating a site to offer it. I never had a Facebook account until the pandemic! I used a flip phone for 10 years until it broke. I work exclusively online purely because it simplifies my life.

Why am I doing this? Well, I ask myself that question often…..

It’s because I want change. I want PDA families to have professional support that is meaningful and affirming.

Change happens all around us in incredibly powerful ways. I experience this all the time. I often say out loud what it is others may be looking to grasp. A little nudge. It’s all it takes to begin the momentum for change. In you, in all of us.

It’s the butterfly effect in action!

Defined by Wikipedia: “In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.”

As the world grows ever more chaotic the butterfly effect is everywhere.

Ideas shared here that make sense to you have ripple effects that expand.

In this profession we serve. But by helping others, we are also parenting our own children, and help ourselves, by contributing to a world of greater understanding for everyone.

Hold the butterfly in your hands and use it to empower someone else. Knowledge doesn’t belong to me, or you, it belongs to all of us.

Share a link from the PDA Therapy Collaborative with your colleagues. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the maintenance and upkeep of this site.

If you feel too busy to read the guide, I’m producing video recordings that I’ll be posting on their own page in the coming weeks. You’re welcome to watch or listen and I’ll let all of you know when I post them.

I hope you visit us often at the PDA Therapy Collaborative over the coming year.

Warmly,

Elise Jacobson, LICSW