ABOUT ME
EXPERIENCES ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR GROWTH
Susan is a retired occupational therapist living in Tempe, Arizona. She received her M.S. degree in Occupational Therapy from Western Michigan University in 1968. Susan pursued a Master's degree in special education technology in 1995. She was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum in 1999. Most of her career was spent in school based practice. Frustrated with the pull-out medical model of providing OT services in the school setting, Susan developed and, with the support of her fellow therapists, administrators, parents and teachers at Loudoun County Public School system in Virginia, initiated an educationally relevant model of therapy services that worked with both the teacher and the student within the classroom setting.
Over the course of her career she pursued certifications in treating sensory processing disorders, completed training in a therapeutic listening program and, later, focused on evaluating and treating executive functioning difficulties (areas that she knew that she struggled with herself).
After her diagnosis, with the support of her husband, Susan became active for the next 10 years in the autistic community as an organizer and presenter at Autreat, an educational retreat conference created and run by autistic adults. She contributed some of her poems and narratives, which she wrote after her diagnosis, to the book "Women From Another Planet: Our Lives in the Universe of Autism" in 2003. The poem that she wrote to explain her autism to her husband can be found below.
Susan was invited to be a Keynote and Breakout speaker at Autism/Asperger Conferences in Phoenix and California between 2004 and 2011. She was a co-presenter in a congress-mandated training of all Vocational Rehabilitation counselors in the state of Arizona on Autism Spectrum Disorders in 2008. Susan authored an article in the Autism Advocate magazine in 2009 entitled “What We Don’t Know (About Relationships) CAN Hurt Us”.
Susan retired from practicing occupational therapy in 2009 to become a caregiver to her husband with Alzheimer's. She has remained active in the autistic community, however, as a co-host in an autistic adult support group in Phoenix. She is currently working on developing what she perceives as a much-needed Neuro-Strength-Based Approach to Working with Autistic Individuals. This website is her attempt to share this approach, and exchange ideas for implementing and improving it, with those parents, therapists, and educators who are looking for a strength-based, neurodiverse-friendly, measurable method for creating team-coordinated goals that focus on what the autistic individual WANTS to achieve that will enable them to function more effectively and comfortably in their current environments.
Over the course of her career she pursued certifications in treating sensory processing disorders, completed training in a therapeutic listening program and, later, focused on evaluating and treating executive functioning difficulties (areas that she knew that she struggled with herself).
After her diagnosis, with the support of her husband, Susan became active for the next 10 years in the autistic community as an organizer and presenter at Autreat, an educational retreat conference created and run by autistic adults. She contributed some of her poems and narratives, which she wrote after her diagnosis, to the book "Women From Another Planet: Our Lives in the Universe of Autism" in 2003. The poem that she wrote to explain her autism to her husband can be found below.
Susan was invited to be a Keynote and Breakout speaker at Autism/Asperger Conferences in Phoenix and California between 2004 and 2011. She was a co-presenter in a congress-mandated training of all Vocational Rehabilitation counselors in the state of Arizona on Autism Spectrum Disorders in 2008. Susan authored an article in the Autism Advocate magazine in 2009 entitled “What We Don’t Know (About Relationships) CAN Hurt Us”.
Susan retired from practicing occupational therapy in 2009 to become a caregiver to her husband with Alzheimer's. She has remained active in the autistic community, however, as a co-host in an autistic adult support group in Phoenix. She is currently working on developing what she perceives as a much-needed Neuro-Strength-Based Approach to Working with Autistic Individuals. This website is her attempt to share this approach, and exchange ideas for implementing and improving it, with those parents, therapists, and educators who are looking for a strength-based, neurodiverse-friendly, measurable method for creating team-coordinated goals that focus on what the autistic individual WANTS to achieve that will enable them to function more effectively and comfortably in their current environments.
| different_on_the_inside.doc |