Introduction to Pathological Demand Avoidance // Persistent Drive for Autonomy (PDA)

I'm a therapist that specializes in supporting neurodivergent folks ages 3+, and I created this introduction for those who have heard of PDA but want to know more, and even more so for mental health workers who want to know more about supporting PDAers and their parents (for teens/kids).

In addition to training in art and play therapy, I have specialized instruction and supervision around working with ND populations, 15 years experience working with kids, 4 years working in community mental health and then my private practice as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and a lifetime as a likely internalized PDAer myself with PDA family members.

I plan on providing more of these presentations in order to go into more detail about working with different PDA age groups.

References:
Woods, R. (2023). “Pathological Demand-Avoidance” (PDA): A “pathological”/extreme avoidance to its hype. Conference: ECHO Autism Summer Pop-up Session: PDA.
--I said "James Woods" in the presentation, but meant Richard