PDA North America - Pathological Demand Avoidance

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PDA North America - Pathological Demand Avoidance Our mission is bold. We want to spread awareness of PDA to parents, individuals, educators and therapists throughout the US and Canada.
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Our mission is to provide advocacy, education, and resources to autistic PDA individuals, others who identify as PDA and their families along with the professionals who support them. We want families to have a place to turn for support and guidance. We want professionals to be able to receive training, consultation and information in order to effectively teach or treat PDAers. And we want PDAers to know that they are understood. In short, to build a strong and vibrant community for this underserved population.

🎮 What if the screen is where things finally feel manageable?For some PDAers, screens offer connection, predictability, ...
10/19/2026

🎮 What if the screen is where things finally feel manageable?

For some PDAers, screens offer connection, predictability, joy, and relief. That can make questions about limits, transitions, and safety much more complicated than “just turn it off.”

Let’s have a conversation that makes room for that complexity.

Next Thursday, join Amanda Diekman and Brook Madera for PDA & Screen Time: Problem, Tool, or Lifeline.

We’ll explore how screens can overwhelm, support, or stabilize PDA children and adults, with practical examples and options that consider regulation, safety, autonomy, and daily demands.

đź“… October 22 at 7 PM Central

What would make this conversation useful to YOU? Submit your questions in advance to help shape the Q&A. Bring the tricky transitions, the conflicting advice, or the concerns you haven’t found space to talk about.

đź’¬ Comment PDASCREEN for the links to register and submit your questions. Already registered? You can use the same keyword to send yours in!

Share this with someone who’s looking for a more thoughtful approach to screen time.

🎮 When screens are a lifeline, “just turn it off” isn’t much of a strategy.Screens can offer PDAers connection, joy, a s...
10/17/2026

🎮 When screens are a lifeline, “just turn it off” isn’t much of a strategy.

Screens can offer PDAers connection, joy, a sense of control, and relief from an overwhelming world. They can also bring real concerns about safety, transitions, sleep, and meeting daily needs.

You deserve a conversation that makes room for all of it.

Join Amanda Diekman and Brook Madera for PDA & Screen Time: Problem, Tool, or Lifeline on October 22 at 7 PM Central.

Together, we’ll explore:
📱 What screens may be providing for PDA children and adults
🎮 How screen use can support regulation or add to overwhelm
đź’ˇ Practical options that honor autonomy while considering safety and everyday needs

And we want YOUR questions in the conversation.

What advice hasn’t worked? What feels hard to navigate? What do you wish someone understood about your relationship, or your child’s relationship, with screens?

Submit your questions in advance to help shape the Q&A. No perfect wording needed.

💬 Comment PDASCREEN and we’ll send you the links to register AND submit your questions.

Share this with someone who’s tired of one-size-fits-all screen time advice.

đź“Ł Meet your 2027 featured speakers & get your early bird tickets!Join us (virtually or in-person) on March 4-5th, 2027 f...
10/15/2026

đź“Ł Meet your 2027 featured speakers & get your early bird tickets!

Join us (virtually or in-person) on March 4-5th, 2027 for two full days of connection, learning, and community. The 8th Annual PDA North America Conference brings together this incredible lineup to explore life, relationships, and support through a PDA-affirming lens:

✨ Dr. Megan Anna Neff, Psy.D.
Founder of Neurodivergent Insights

✨ Maria Davis-Pierre
Founder of Autism in Black

✨ Kory Andreas, LCSW-C
Therapist and PDAer

✨ Rachael Stern, LICSW-C
Owner of Break The Frame Psychotherapy

✨ Melissa McKenzie, Ph.D.
PDANA Research Lead

✨ Zach Morris, M.Ed.
Founder of Alive at Learn

✨ Diane Gould, LCSW
Founder of PDA North America

✨ Lindsay Flanagan, MSW, LCSW
Founder of Hive Parents

We’re talking parenting, relationships, grief, race and intersectionality, the intersection of AuDHD and PDA, building a positive PDA adult identity and more. Conversations that make room for the complexity of our lives and offer new ways to understand and support one another.

Whether you’re a PDAer, parent, caregiver, therapist, educator, or other professional, there’s a place for you here.

đź“Ť Attend virtually or join us in Skokie, Illinois, just outside Chicago.

đź’¬ Live presentations with opportunities to ask questions.
🎥 Recordings included with your ticket so you can revisit sessions or watch later.
🤝 Virtual community connection events during lunch each day, with details coming soon!

Find your people. Deepen your understanding. Join the conversation.

Comment PDA2027 for conference details and early-bird tickets, sent straight to your inbox.

Help more PDAers and the people who support them find this community. Share this post with someone you’d love to join you!

đź“Ł NEXT FRIDAY: What if changing how we support PDAers starts with changing what we believe about behavior?So much tradit...
10/14/2026

đź“Ł NEXT FRIDAY: What if changing how we support PDAers starts with changing what we believe about behavior?

So much traditional parenting advice is built around compliance, consequences, motivation, authority, and respect. For PDAers, those assumptions can unintentionally increase stress, resistance, and conflict.

Join adult PDAer and PDA parent coach Keri Schouten for Mindset Shift, a LIVE 3 hour training + Q&A that goes beyond communication strategies to examine the beliefs behind how we respond.

🧠 Explore how reframing behavior through autonomy, equity, nervous system safety, and connection can change the way we parent, teach, communicate, and collaborate with PDAers.

đź“… October 23 at 10am Central
🎥 Recording included
Register for Part 2 or join us for the full 3 part series.

👉 Comment COMMUNICATION and we’ll send you the registration options.

What if less talking could lead to more healing?Join us tomorrow as Brooke Randolph, LMHC, LIMHP, LPC, LPCC-S presents P...
10/14/2026

What if less talking could lead to more healing?

Join us tomorrow as Brooke Randolph, LMHC, LIMHP, LPC, LPCC-S presents PDA & Brainspotting. We’ll explore what Brainspotting actually is, what it looks like in practice, and what matters when considering it for PDAers. See how less reliance on verbal processing may create more room for autonomy, choice and regulation.

đź“… Tomorrow, October 15!
⏰ 7 PM CT
đź’» Live online

Comment and we’ll send you the link to learn more + register.

⏰ NEXT WEEK: One of the PDA Community's Biggest Conversations📱 Everything you thought you knew about screen time...might...
10/13/2026

⏰ NEXT WEEK: One of the PDA Community's Biggest Conversations

📱 Everything you thought you knew about screen time...might not apply to PDA.

For some PDAers, screens are a source of conflict.

For others, they're a tool for regulation, autonomy, connection, creativity, recovery—and even learning.

So what's really going on?

Join Amanda Diekman and Brook Madera, two adult PDAers, for an honest, nuanced conversation about one of the most talked-about—and misunderstood—topics in the PDA community.

📱 PDA & Screen Time: Problem, Tool, or Lifeline?

đź—“ October 22
⏰ 7:00 PM Central
🎥 Live + Recording Included

Whether you're a PDAer, parent, educator, clinician, or other professional, you'll leave with a deeper understanding of why one-size-fits-all advice about screens often misses the mark—and what to consider instead.

đź’¬ Comment PDASCREEN below, and we'll automatically send you the registration link!

What if therapy didn’t have to start with talking?Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that uses where you look, alon...
10/13/2026

What if therapy didn’t have to start with talking?

Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that uses where you look, alongside what you notice in your thoughts, emotions and body, to support processing. For PDAers, that opens up an interesting question: Could therapy feel different when there’s less pressure to explain everything out loud?

Join Brooke Randolph, LMHC, LIMHP, LPC, LPCC-S for a live exploration of PDA & Brainspotting, including what Brainspotting is, how it works and what a PDA-affirming approach can look like in practice.

đź“… October 15 at 7 PM CT

Curious? Comment PDABrainSpot and we’ll send you the link to learn more + register.

đź’¬ Watch Anytime: The Importance of Caregiver FriendshipsThis pre-recorded PDA North America webinar is a free go-to reso...
10/12/2026

đź’¬ Watch Anytime: The Importance of Caregiver Friendships

This pre-recorded PDA North America webinar is a free go-to resource for caregivers of PDAers and neurodivergent kids. Megan Champion explores why building connections with other caregivers isn’t just nice—it’s essential for reducing stress, burnout, and overwhelm.

✨Learn how safe vulnerability and meaningful support can make a real difference—at your own pace, whenever it works for you.

đź’¬ Comment FriendPDA for the direct link!

Join us this Thursday as Brooke Randolph, LMHC, LIMHP, LPC, LPCC-S explores what it could mean if therapy didn’t require...
10/12/2026

Join us this Thursday as Brooke Randolph, LMHC, LIMHP, LPC, LPCC-S explores what it could mean if therapy didn’t require finding the right words?

Her live webinar, PDA & Brainspotting, will look at what Brainspotting actually is, what it can look like in practice, and what matters when considering it for PDAers.

See how less reliance on verbal processing may create more room for autonomy, choice and regulation.

đź“… October 15
⏰ 7 PM CT
đź’» Live online

Comment PDABrainSpot and we’ll send you the link to learn more + register.

We started with understanding equalizing. Now we’re going deeper.In Part 1, Keri Schouten helped us look beneath equaliz...
10/10/2026

We started with understanding equalizing. Now we’re going deeper.

In Part 1, Keri Schouten helped us look beneath equalizing to understand the needs for autonomy and equity underneath.

Part 2 asks us to turn the lens toward ourselves.

What beliefs are we carrying about behavior, respect, discipline, consequences, motivation, and authority and what happens when those beliefs don’t align with the lived experience of PDAers?

Join Keri for Mindset Shift, a LIVE 3 hour training + Q&A exploring how reframing these assumptions can reduce conflict and create more autonomy, nervous system safety, connection, and collaboration.

đź“… October 23 at 10am Central
🎥 Recording included

Missed Part 1? You can still join us. Register for Part 2 on its own or continue with the full series.

Comment COMMUNICATION for the registration options. đź’›

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