Join Us: Nathan's Path to Connection

Imagine that you’re Nathan – you can’t talk, or walk, or use one side of your body. Maybe you’re hungry, but you can’t tell anyone, so you have to wait for people to guess. Imagine having an itch you can’t scratch, and you can’t ask someone to get it for you. Or every parent’s worst nightmare -- what if someone trusted to take care of you doesn’t, and you can’t tell mom or dad? Nathan relies on the kindness and patience of others for everything, every day. He’s getting older now, and over the years we have tried a wide variety of treatments and therapies to help improve his life. But Nathan never seemed interested in exploring the world around him, and overall seemed disconnected from everything and everybody.

A few years ago, we stumbled upon a refreshing approach to therapy called Floortime (also known as DIR/Floortime®), an approach used to promote an individual's development through a respectful, playful, joyful, and engaging process. The ICDL is the primary organization offering trainings for this method, and during the shut-down, they offered two free online parent coaching sessions. I’m a sucker for free stuff, and It turned out to be the best decision ever. Floortime finally provided a framework that explained not only why Nathan was so disengaged, but also effective ways to help him connect. As we learned to understand Nathan, he learned to connect with us.

Unfortunately, there are no local therapists certified in the Floortime method. The ICDL offers week-long intensives at their office in New Jersey, and we decided to take the whole family to participate and learn how to help Nathan help himself. But Intensives are not covered by insurance, and they aren’t cheap – this one costs $6000, and that doesn’t even cover to the cost of travel. We are dedicated to helping Nathan in whatever way possible, so please help us to help him.

This account is being established by Linda, Nathan’s grandmother, at the request of and with the blessing of us (mom and dad). This way, we don’t have to worry about handling the website at the same time as we are attending the clinic. Those who would prefer giving directly or via gift cards (for example, gas cards or restaurant cards to help with travel), these are definitely welcome, and details can be sent via the GoFundMe messaging system. Those who wish to contribute via encouragement and prayers are definitely appreciated – please drop us a note to let us know! We will be trying to provide some brief updates throughout the week, and a summary at the end, so please let us know via email if you want to receive those updates.

https://www.icdl.com/dir/floortime