[March 14, 2022] - Positive Development (PD) and Profectum Foundation (Profectum) have partnered to create an industry-leading, first-of-its-kind training experience for Positive Development’s licensed professional staff. The Developmental Individual Relationship-based (DIR®) training program will be offered as a no-cost benefit to PD employees interested in investing in their skills and careers.

The expedited and intensive certification program, called the Profectum-Positive Development Fellows Level 2/Advanced Certificate, will allow PD professionals to obtain the advanced certificate via daily on-the-job training and supervision within just 10 months. Profectum’s proven training curriculum reflects the organization's original Certificate Level 1 and Certificate Level 2 content. However, due to the intensity of the daily in-person training, PD professionals are able to complete their training at an accelerated pace.

The training will be offered to PD clinicians in the fields of mental health, speech therapy, and occupational therapy.

"We are passionate about making Positive Development the best career destination for clinicians supporting people with developmental differences,” said Positive Development Co-founder and CEO, Mike Suiters. “In Profectum, we have a mission-aligned partner dedicated to excellence in training and quality of care. We are thrilled to offer our staff a world-class Profectum professional development experience at no additional cost.”

“Positive Development’s transdisciplinary team structure and organization is a unique and ideal hands-on environment for therapists to learn and apply our training,” said Profectum’s Executive Director Monica G. Osgood. “More importantly, our organizations share a commitment to setting and resetting the standards for quality and ethics in our field.”

As a part of the partnership, Profectum’s Monica G. Osgood will be joining Positive Development’s Clinical Advisory Board. “Few people in the world have Monica’s experience training teams at scale in both educational and clinical contexts. We are thrilled to add a leader like Monica to our Clinical Advisory Board,” said Mike Suiters.

In addition to supporting the training of licensed professionals, Profectum and Positive Development have also collaborated at the paraprofessional level.

About DIR®

Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based Model (DIR®) is an intervention providing a developmental framework for interdisciplinary assessment and intervention for autism and other developmental and mental health challenges. It is a comprehensive foundation model that utilizes affect-based interactions and experiences tailored to individual needs to promote development.

About Profectum Foundation

Profectum provides thousands of families and professionals with critical resources needed to maximize the development of diverse individuals through its resources, conferences, and training programs each year and is considered the source of the highest quality DIR Model® training in the world. With a goal to find the best treatment to provide individuals health, well-being, and developmental growth, a distinguished multidisciplinary faculty offers in-depth resources and training to enable caregivers, clinicians, and teachers to work with individuals across their lifespan. Profectum offers certificate and non-certificate training courses and some of Profectum’s resources include a FREE Parent Training Program and extensive webcast library.

If you’re a parent or professional in need of resources and training, or would like to donate to our cause, please contact via the following options: profectum.org | 973-531-4376 | contactme@profectum.org

About Positive Development

Positive Development’s integrative, developmental approach to therapy respects the individuality of every person, with treatment based on their strengths and how they process the world around them. It also provides education, coaching, and tools to enable parents to become an empowered and essential part of their child’s care team. Comprehensive Developmental Therapy treats children with autism and other developmental differences holistically by including Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Mental Health Therapy as part of the intervention process.

In you are a licensed professional interested in joining Positive Development, please contact Positive Development via the following options: positivedevelopment.com | 833-587-1784 | info@positivedevelopment.com.

Building connections & shaping futures for children with developmental differences.