Diane Gould Therapy

In our 2025 PDA Experience Report (based on over 2,000 PDA families), caregivers and PDA individuals reported rarely receiving helpful or affirming information from providers.

The majority reported always or often receiving unhelpful or judgmental feedback, highlighting the gap in provider knowledge and support.

In an effort to help bridge this gap, we reached out to some of the top PDA-affirming therapists we know to create this 3-hour training for caregivers and professionals, all about therapy options for PDAers and what actually works.

Today, we are launching the presale for the training which will go live on the PDA Learning Lab on the morning of June 5th.

In this self-paced training, you’ll learn about how to adapt the following therapy modalities for PDAers, directly from seven different PDA-affirming therapists.

➡️ 7 featured therapists & therapy modalities included:

- Speech-Language Therapy with Linda K. Murphy, MS-CCC-SLP

- Occupational Therapy (OT) with Stephanie Arias, OTR/L

- Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Angele Close, PhD.

- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with Britt Rathbone, MSSW, LCSW-C

- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) with Christine MacInnis, LMFT

- Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) with Colleen Hanson, MSW, LCSW, CDWF

- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Jenny Hoving, LPC & Melissa Emmerson, LCSW, HSV

Our Therapy Options for PDAers training aims to educate both parents and professionals, as they listen to featured guest therapists share practical, neurodiversity and PDA affirming ways to adapt commonly utilized therapeutic modalities.

If you are seeking therapeutic support for your child or family, we hope this training helps you find the quality of services you deserve.

The PDA North America Conference is where understanding replaces judgment, autonomy replaces control, and people finally feel like they belong. As one attendee said:

"This conference was the first time as a parent that I felt safe in ALL my choices to support my PDA child. Safe to talk openly about my struggles and feel seen and heard in a way I never have before. Without judgement, without fear, and without hesitation. I showed up as a stranger and left with a whole community of people who understand my experience and get it. I will be back every year!" - Parent of PDA Child & 2025 Conference Attendee

If you want more information, please comment "conference" down below. We go LIVE on Feb 27th!

If “consequences” worked for PDA kids, most of us wouldn’t be here. 💛 But for PDAers, traditional behavior strategies backfire because they miss the point:

Behavior is communication.
Not a character flaw.

When we say a PDA child “needs attention,” what we often mean is:
They need connection.
They need safety.

The hardest part is as parents, therapists, medical professionals, and educators, we were all taught to CONTROL the behavior. But with PDAers, the real change comes from building their capacity for emotional regulation so they can access the skills they already have, but haven't been able to access.

If you want to learn more, comment “PDA behavior” and we’ll send you the link to the pre-recorded webinar we did last month all about behavior and PDA.

More therapists are getting referrals for autistic clients—even if autism isn’t their specialty.

And many clinicians are realizing traditional compliance-based or insight-first approaches can backfire when a client’s nervous system is in threat mode.

On Feb 6, I am hosting a LIVE 3-hour CE training for mental health therapists who want a stronger foundation for supporting:

✅ autistic clients
✅ PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) profiles
✅ high-demand sensitivity + nervous system-based “avoidance”
✅ therapy rupture patterns that look like “noncompliance” but are actually dysregulation

This is intentionally designed for clinicians who are curious and ready to learn—not only those already specializing in autism.

If you’re a group practice owner or clinical director, this is also a great training to offer your team as referrals shift. Join me on Feb. 6th!

PDA Training for Therapists: Creating Effective Mental Health Practices for PDA individuals (CEs available!) Supporting PDA clients requires more than traditional therapeutic tools—it requires a completely different lens. PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance / Persistent Drive for Autonomy) is often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and missed entirely in clinical settings. As a result, PDA individuals frequent...