DIR Dialogues: Parent Practitioners

Photo credit: Kampus Production

What is DIR? What is Floortime? DIR Glossary

DIR Dialogues: Parent Practitioners

by Affect Autism

A New Podcast!

This marks the first edition of DIR Dialogues from Affect Autism! This new podcast will include Practitioner Panels–the first one featuring parent practitioners! DIR Dialogues will be an addition to the usual podcasts. I hope you will enjoy them!

This Episode’s Guests

This episode, my guests all have something in common. They are parents of a neurodivergent child as well as being DIR practitioners. My first returning guest is my son’s Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and expert Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR) training leader, Sabrina O’Keefe. Licensed Professional Counselor Mike Fields is also a DIR-expert and works at several clinics including a Across All Ages, a new Floortime clinic in Avondale, a part of Atlanta. Dave Nelson is also a DIR-expert Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and the Executive Administrative Director of the Threshold Community Program in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Robert Naseef is a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia who co-runs a fathers support group for fathers and male caregivers of autistic individuals at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. He is the father of an adult 45-year-old autistic son. And first-time guest, DIR-Advanced Valerie Redekopp is an SLP in private practice through her company, Developing Possibilities in St. Albert, just outside of Edmonton, Alberta. She is the mother of three grown sons, the youngest of which is a neurodivergent 26 year-old.

This Episode’s Highlights

Each guest shared a bit about their parenting experience, their neurodivergent child(ren), and when their practitioner journey began. We covered how being a parent of a neurodivergent (ND) child has supported each guest in their practice and what they have learned from the families they work with that has supported them in their own parenting journey. We briefly touched on reflective practice and the double-edged sword of being a parent-practitioner, but above all, the theme of Relationship stood out. I hope you’ll enjoy the dialogue!

Past Podcasts with This Episode's Guests

MIKE FIELDS, Licensed Professional Counselor

• Growth and Gaming 
• ADHD: A VAST Topic
• Why Floortime is Child-Led 
• Creating Opportunities in Floortime 
• Unpacking ‘Aggression’
• All About Praxis: Part 1 of 2
• All About Praxis: Part 2 of 2
• DIR and the Science of Hope

DAVE NELSON, Licensed Professional Counselor

• Process-oriented learning inspires relating, communicating, and thinking 
• Threshold Community Program: DIR for adolescents and young adults
• Online Schooling and Services during a Pandemic
• And then comes puberty…
• Curiosity as a Driver of Connection and Interaction in Adolescence

The video of Dr. Naseef being interviewed after the movie Rain Man in 1988.

SABRINA O’KEEFE, Speech-Language Pathologist

• Gestalt Language Processing and DIR

ROBERT NASEEF, Psychologist

• From Ambiguous Loss to Acceptance
• Support for Fathers of Children on the Spectrum
• Diagnosing Autism in Girls and Women

I am so grateful to this episode’s guests for agreeing to participate in my first DIR Dialogues and hope that you found it a worthwhile listen. If so, please consider sharing it on social media!

Until next time, here’s to choosing play and experiencing joy everyday!

Thank you to Montreal recording artists the Ripcordz for the intro/outro song permission.