GroupWorks West was founded in 2000 by Christopher Mulligan LCSW to improve the quality of life of those challenged by autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) – parents, children, teens, and young adults. GroupWorks West offers social development and psychotherapy groups, individual counseling, parent consultation, and family therapy.

Those affected by ASD – whether a preschool child or a young adult – suffer from an impairment in the capacity to form meaningful and satisfying emotional connections with others (parents, peers, etc.). The failure to develop emotional connections with others has a devastating impact on the overall quality of life of everyone challenged by ASD  (regardless of IQ, school performance, and speech and language abilities).

Relationships that are firmly grounded in an emotional attachment play a critical role in cognitive development (the capacity for flexible and creative social problem solving) and the development of resilience (the capacity to adapt to change, uncertainty, and stress). The capacity for emotional attachment gives rise to the development of the child’s capacity to think and reason. Children learn to think about the world via mental engagement with the way their parents think about the world. Through the process of attachment, typical children literally share their parents’ perceptions of the world, thus creating the capacity to make sense of  novelty, uncertainty, and dynamic change.

Emotional attachment to others gives life meaning, direction, safety, and above all pleasure. Early emotional attachment/connections also lays the foundation for later participation in social groups -- and involvement in social groups provides the all important experience of belonging to a social community. Belonging to a social community safeguards us against isolation, loneliness, and the development of serious mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

Relationships that are based in emotional attachment also provide us with motivation to become socially competent beings (e.g., sharing, empathy, joining conversations, conflict resolution, maintaining coordination with a play partner, saying hello and good bye, etc.). Typically developing children DO NOT acquire socially competent behavior (or social skills) in the form of a lesson or via repeated instruction that is memorized and then applied in a rote manner. Rather, socially competent behavior is always acquired via active social engagement in the context of a relationship that is grounded in a positive emotional attachment. In short, children learn to say hello or ask questions or share their ideas because they care about their caregivers and peers and they value human relationships. Through emotional attachments, the primary reference point for the typical child is the “other” (caregiver and later peers). The typically developing child is motivated on an ongoing basis to be socially competent by their emotional investment with others and the pleasure and satisfaction they receive from their emotional engagement with others.

At GroupWorks West our mission is to create an emotional environment in which children, teens and young adults will develop socially competent behavior. Unlike traditional social skills, this developmental process does not happen by memorizing social responses and strategies and then applying these responses and strategies in a rote manner. Instead, our goal is to create positive emotional attachments – with the group leaders and then with peers. By forming positive emotional attachments our clients develop social motivation and then they begin to acquire social skills. The development of skills occurs without any need for scripting or prompting or linear instruction.  

How does this happen?
At GroupWorks West each session focuses on:

• Community building activities
• Encouraging laughter/joy
• Valuing each member of the group as a unique person
• Creating simple activities that have as their only focus enjoyment/pleasure via social interaction (not via toys, legos, board games, or craft activities )
• Encouraging emotional expression
• Nurturing intra-group relationships
• Encouraging giving and receiving feedback
• Encouraging giving and receiving help
• Admiring and respecting each member’s strengths
• Accepting each member’s challenges
• Offering compassion to each member
• Believing that all members are capable of making lasting friendships

How do we  know our members improve in terms of social competence?
Because we consistently see the following changes:

1. A decrease in object focused attention (i.e., objects of special interest such as DVD’s, video games, toys, and books).
2. A decrease in object focused communication/monologues (i.e., one way communication about an area of knowledge or special interest)
3. A decrease in adult-directed communication (increase in peer orientation)
4. An increase in interest in the unique attributes and biographies of each member
5. An increase in memories of the unique attributes and biographies of each member
6. An increase in motivation to be PART of the group
7. Subordinating individual needs to the needs of the group as a whole
8. An increase in flexible and resilient thought and behavior
9. Expecting friendships to be more pleasurable than solitary interests and activities
10. An increase in the motivation for socially competent behavior
11. Increase in mindful and self-aware behavior