We’re in the final week of our fourth three-week intensive at NAPA Center. Once we wrap up on Friday, we’ll have completed a total of six intensive therapies with NAPA and several at other clinics, and while I’m far from being an expert in navigating the world of intensive therapies, I now feel confident in what to expect when we walk through the doors on Day 1 of an intensive.

While there is a lot of planning and paperwork that goes into an intensive, without a doubt, one of the hardest parts of intensive therapy – aside from managing Solly’s fatigue and constant need for motivation – is setting goals at the onset of treatment. Goals are vital to the success of intensive therapy. They help the therapy team understand what I envision for Solly; they guide the therapy team in developing a plan for the duration of the intensive; and they can also dictate Solly’s confidence throughout the intensive therapy. Too easy and he quickly becomes board. Too hard and he doesn’t want to participate. For these reasons, there is quite a bit of pressure for me to fine tune our list of goals before starting an intensive.

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