Popescu Family
Family Stories
The Popescu Family
Our son Alec, age 9, was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old. At first we did not know where to turn for help, and it was especially difficult because we have had to move many times for our work. We originally discovered the Relationship Development Intervention Program through reading Dr. Gutstein’s book Solving the Relationship Puzzle and tried to implement some of the things we learned on our own. When we met Nicole at a 4-day parent workshop 6 years ago we knew that we wanted to have her help us move forward with the program.
Over the past six years we have continued to be impressed with the professionalism and kindness of the entire Horizons team. We feel so much more hopeful and empowered with our son. Nicole has helped us understand Alec much better, including what we need to do to help him. Alec loves her and continues to make a lot of progress. He references us more than ever before, coordinates with us, enjoys variations to activities, and is thinking much more about what he is doing.
We initially started doing RDI at Horizons, but then moved into using the comprehensive CORE Approach the Horizons team developed. We have moved to France and have done consultation long-distance since the move. We thought this might make things difficult, but it has gone very well. Our communication is consistent and the process has worked very smoothly. It is our hope that any family considering Horizons would make the decision to try it no matter where you live in the world – it is worth it!