PDA North America - Pathological Demand Avoidance

☀️ Is the thought of summer already stressing you out?

You're not alone.

For many PDAers, summer means disrupted routines, increased expectations, social pressures, camps, vacations, and endless transitions. What looks like freedom can feel overwhelming.

Join us for Summer Survival for PDA Families and learn why traditional behavior strategies often backfire, what's really driving distress and demand avoidance, and how to support your PDAer with more connection, flexibility, and confidence.

Whether you're a parent, educator, clinician, or caregiver, you'll leave with practical insights you can use right away.

🎟️ Reserve your spot today: https://buff.ly/BpSJyzm

⏰ Just 1 Week Away!

Our upcoming webinar, Consent & Communication with Speech Therapist and PDA Board Member, Linda Murphy, is happening soon — and you won’t want to miss this important conversation 💜

Learn how consent-centered communication can help build trust, reduce stress, and create more supportive relationships in everyday life.

✨ Whether you’re a parent, educator, professional, PDAer, or other neurodivergent adult, this session will offer practical insights you can start using right away.

🗓️ Happening in ONE WEEK
🎟️ Comment ConsentComm to reserve your spot today!

💪 Father’s Day month reminder: dads need support, too.
Join PJ Starling () NEXT WEEK for our June PDA & Fatherhood session — the perfect space to pause, connect, and breathe.

🗓 June 9 @ 7 PM CST
🎟️ Comment DADJUNE26 for your seat.

Gentle reminder: All of our instincts about behavior are usually wrong.

Join us on June 25th, when our founder Diane Gould talks about what learning about PDA taught her about behavior.

Comment "learning about PDA" and we'll DM you the link to register for the webinar, which will be recorded and available for unlimited replay.

💛 What Learning About PDA Taught Me About Behavior
🗣️ A 90-minute webinar by PDA North America founder and Executive Director, Diane Gould
🗓️ June 25th @ 7pm Central

🎓 Coming next week: PDA 101!
Learn how to support autonomy and reduce struggle with understanding.

🗓 June 4 | 7 PM CST
FREE webinar

Comment 101JUN26 for the direct link

What if the behaviors we’ve been taught to “correct” are actually signs of overwhelm, fear, and nervous system distress?

Join PDA North America for “What Learning About PDA Taught Me About Behavior” with Diane Gould, LCSW-C; a compassionate and eye-opening webinar exploring why traditional behavior strategies often fail PDAers and how we can move toward approaches rooted in autonomy, safety, and connection.

This session will challenge conventional ideas about compliance and “challenging behavior” while offering practical, neurodiversity-affirming ways to support PDA individuals with empathy and respect.

Perfect for:
✨ PDAers
✨ Parents
✨ Educators
✨ Therapists & clinicians
✨ Supporters of neurodivergent individuals

🎟️ Register now: https://buff.ly/AlvnToe

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 drive for autonomy does not mean that PDAers don’t need connection.

Connection is not only helpful to PDAers, but critical to well-being.”

- Diane Gould, LCSW - Founder of PDA North America

🔥 Summer’s busy, but connection doesn’t take a break.
Join PJ Starling () on July 14 @ 7 PM CST for PDA & Fatherhood.

✅ Empathy
✅ Practical tools
✅ Real conversations

🎟️ | Comment DADJULY26 for the link

✨ How do we create communication that feels safe, respectful, and truly supportive?

Join us for our upcoming webinar with Speech Therapist, Author, and PDA North America Board Member, Linda Murphy: Consent & Communication 💜

We’ll explore how asking for consent before sharing information — especially difficult or emotionally charged conversations — can strengthen trust, connection, and understanding.

🗓️ Save your spot now
🔗 Comment ConsentComm for the direct link to register!

💬 Perfect for parents, educators, professionals, PDAers, and other neurodivergent adults looking to build more compassionate communication practices.