Neurodivergent Empowerment Institute<\/a> in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n\u201cMost of the community has to get pieces of their treatment from a multitude of different places, and you don’t have to go to a multitude of different places,\u201d said Fisher.<\/p>\n
A multidisciplinary team made up of psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists specializing in music and art, and occupational therapies and a holistic team provides support both in-person and virtually.<\/p>\n
Fisher says the foundation of the program is based on three pillars: validation, acceptance, and nurture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at validating, yes, you might be unique in some way. That’s OK, it\u2019s not broken,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cAccepting that you might be unique in some way. The nurture aspect is actually learning to be happy with and to nurture ourselves instead of pushing ourselves to be different from what we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diagnosed with autism and ADHD, 8-year-old Goldie Lenerz has been receiving support at NEI for about a year.<\/p>\n
Part of Goldie’s support at NEI includes participating in music and art therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that I kind of get to draw whatever I want,\u201d Goldie said while drawing a cartoon character.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really treat it on an individual basis where we are seeing the child, the adult, whoever it is, their strengths, their unique gifts, what makes them them, and really enhancing that and really starting to empower them to explore their uniqueness,\u201d said recreation therapist Alli Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on emotional expression,\u201d said music therapist Abby Hagan.<\/p>\n
Goldie\u2019s parents say they are seeing a difference in their daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re trying to help her build skills with her unique brain, so she can navigate the world in her own way,\u201d said Rachel Lenerz, Goldie\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see like a huge turnaround, you know, since treatment started. With her attitude to school or her being able to do homework and get it done in a timely manner and feel confident,\u201d said Goldie\u2019s father, Chris Lenerz.<\/p>\n
That kind of turnaround is the mission of the new institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen people come out of burnout,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people be able to work where they weren’t able to work before. I\u2019ve seen a lot of children excel in school where they were getting kicked out or having to be homeschooled.\u201d<\/p>\n
An official grand opening for the Neurodivergent Empowerment Institute was held in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A new approach to supporting the neurodivergent community focuses on helping people thrive on their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3948,274,571,1187,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278],"class_list":["post-110283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-health","tag-app-top-stories","tag-health","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}