EPISODE40
Reflecting on the Journey: A Retreat Weekend for Parents of Autistic Family Members
Reflecting on the Journey: A Retreat Weekend for Parents of Autistic Family Members
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…and Continue the Discussion
Do you have a book or podcast club? If so, you may use this discussion guide to facilitate a conversation about this episode.
1) How does the retreat address many of the significant stressors and challenges experienced by families? Have you experienced such challenges as a parent, or know of families who clearly could use the support of a retreat weekend?
2) What is striking to you about the format and sequence of activities planned for the retreat as discussed in this episode? Are there particular activities that you feel would be especially helpful for you, or for families that you know?
3) Barry, Elaine and Barbara are committed to ensuring that the voices of autistic people are part of the retreat, by inviting autistic individuals to participate in the weekend and facilitate discussions. Dave discusses his experience of attending the retreat. What does Dave see as the value that he experienced, and what value do you see in creating this opportunity for parents as well as the autistic individuals who attend?
Featuring
ELAINE MEYER
Elaine C. Meyer, PhD, RN, MBE, FSSH is a clinical psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, nurse, and bioethicist. She is faculty at the Center for Bioethics and Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. She is a founding member of the International PERCS Collaborative (Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills) that has partners in Italy, Australia, Germany, and Argentina. She serves as healthcare educational consultant at Fundación Garrahan in Buenos Aires, Argentina and senior scholar at the ARCIM Institute in Filderstadt, Germany.
Her clinical experience, innovative teaching, and academic scholarship have emphasized patient and family priorities and perspectives, end-of-life care, and communication and relational skills across healthcare boundaries in an effort to promote humanism and ethical integrity in healthcare.
BARBARA DOMINGUE
Barbara Domingue, M.Ed., ATP is the Executive Director of Community Autism Resources, Inc., an autism support center in Southeastern Massachusetts, which provides a variety of resources to autistic individuals, their families, and the professionals who assist them. She has been actively involved in the areas of family support and autism consultation for the past 30 years and has served on numerous state and national boards. Her involvement in the area of A.S.D. has evolved from her experiences with her 37-year-old autistic son.
Show Notes
For 25 years, Barry and his colleagues have conducted a unique retreat weekend in a beautiful setting in New England in partnership with Dr. Elaine Meyer of Harvard University, and Barbara Domingue, founder and Executive Director of Community Autism Resources, a parent founded and run family support agency. The retreat welcomes 50-60 parents each year, to share experiences and wisdom, and to refuel in a “non-judgmental zone”. In this podcast, we discuss the philosophy, the goals, and the nuts and bolts of conducting a retreat. Dave shares his experience as an autistic person attending the retreat. For those interested in facilitating their own retreat experiences in their community, we also discuss a unique training experience that is available as part of the weekend.
CAR’s Parent Retreat:
Submit this Form to Attend Parent Retreat (only)
Submit this Form to Attend Retreat Training & Retreat
To learn more about Elaine’s work:
TedTalk, “On being present, not perfect“