RDI Certified Consultant,
Bronwen Prazak
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take But by the moments that take our breath away”
Finding Relationship Development Intervention was a moment that took my breath away. As we have breathed our way through RDI, there have been many moments around tiny changes, but so momentous, they still take our breath away.
I am having trouble remembering just what it was like. I am also having trouble with sharing how dismal the future seemed back then. It’s like we have moved on and it is no longer relevant. But at the time it was overwhelming as we struggled to understand and help our son and as we struggled to know how to parent. I know our lives would be very different if I had not finally stumbled across Relationship Development Intervention. I knew I could not stay away and live with the question “what if we had done RDI?” and I had to find out more. I drove 5 hours to Sydney to listen to Dr Gutstein for 2 days straight, cried and soaked in all the videos and had my breath taken away by the amazing explanation. It just made so much sense, for why we were where we were at and for what we could do about it.
Our son was bright and talking early, chunks of sentences. Animated and enthusiastic about lots of different topics, he gobbled up language. Then he just fell into reading and gobbled up knowledge. He loved words and humor and was fun and interesting to be with. But we struggled and he struggled with simple things. It didn’t make sense that he could be so clever in some areas and just not get others. But after hearing Dr Gutstein I could put words to what had been happening; before that I had not seen or heard any ideas that would help or any explanations that resonated with me.
Starting RDI is like going into a clothing shop and getting a new coat; a coat that has a completely different pattern and texture to anything you have ever been used to wearing. In the beginning as we venture into RDI it can feel like putting on a prickly new coat. The things we do, the way we think about things and how we communicate will all be part of our new coat and seem a bit strange and different. We might put the “RDI” coat on at different times in the day but then take it off and go back to our usual doing. But as we slip into understanding the why bother of what we are doing and we build our confidence and competence at what we are doing, the “RDI” coat quickly loses its prickliness. We become more comfortable in what we are doing and we leave the coat on for longer and longer. Eventually, we forget we are wearing an RDI coat and we start to breathe RDI like our skin. RDI just becomes a part of the breaths we take.
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Bronwen Prazak
RDI Program Certified Consultant
ASD Life Quality Connections
Bronwen is a parent and consultant who has been involved with RDI since 2005. Bronwen has always been passionate about growth and reaching potential and loves RDI and the work that she is able to do with families in bringing about these possibilities. Bronwen lives in Hobart, Tasmania.... the small island state of Australia closest to Antarctica!
If you are interested in having Bronwen work with your family, you can contact her by email, phone (0423 066 276) or through the Connect and Relate for Autism website.