THE SAFE CIRCLE: Mastering the metaphor. In The PDA Safe Circle™ Approach, we use an extended metaphor of a circle to describe the human nervous system's capacity to feel safe and regulated. We begin by looking at four aspects of the circle: What's in, out, and on the boundary; which antennae guard the circle; thriving brain v. survival brain; and how the safe circle shrinks or widens. Community members master the metaphor through visual exercises that invite them to sketch their own safe circle in all its aspects.

TRUST: Believe in the person in the circle.  We begin with trusting in the thriving brain version of the PDAer. We remind ourselves of their personal strengths and the strengths that come with being a member of our species. We trust their atypical developmental process as being right for them, even if it looks uneven and different from what we were taught is OK. In TRUST, we outline what thriving looks like for our unique PDAer, and take an inventory of their strengths. 

SEE THE SITUATION CLEARLY:  Look through The Three Lenses. This Element helps us see what's going on clearly. We look at any given situation through the Lens of the PDA Nervous System, The Lens of Other Relevant Neurodivergent Wiring (I have articulated the Lens of Autistic Brain Wiring), and the Lens of Cultural Context, which looks critically at our culture’s norms and how they are impacting our PDAer's wellbeing and our perspective. Each lens has an in-depth explanation, and a printable checklist.

ASSESS NERVOUS SYSTEM CAPACITY: Sketch the safe circle. We physically sketch our PDAer's safe circle on paper to gain powerful insights and data about how our PDAer is actually doing. The safe circle sketch will impact our decisions going forward, and help us communicate with family members, educators and clinicians - whether "our PDAer" is ourself or a loved one. Element 3 expands on Casey Ehrlich's data-driven work on tracking indicators in PDA children.

CREATE SAFETY: Allow the safe circle to widen. We get granular about what is going to help our PDAer's safe circle to widen. We draw Demand Diagrams,  and get curious about how we can remove or mitigate perceived threats ("arrows") that jab at and shrink the safe circle. For tricky challenges, we use principles of Design Thinking to articulate a Design Challenge that includes our specific constraints and deep needs. This allows us to get clear and creative as we generate options and weigh costs and benefits. CREATE SAFETY includes an extensive Accommodations Menu of what we can provide, allow, and refrain from doing that will increase our PDAer’s sense of safety and nervous system capacity - whether our PDAer is ourself or a loved one. CREATE Safety expands on “Low Demand Amanda” Diekman’s invaluable work on low demand parenting. 

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITY: Build bridges into the circle. Bridging is the art of intentionally creating opportunities for something strategic to come (back) into a PDAer’s safe circle using specific cues that help PDAers' threat detection antennae relax. We ask, "Given my PDAer’s limited nervous system capacity, what are the highest priority things to have in their safe circle? What will help them thrive?" Then, if our PDAer's safe circle has room for it, we "build bridges" using particular accommodations and supports. You can never force a PDAer to cross a bridge - but you can build and see if crossing is possible.

ACCEPT DISABILITY & D: Embrace the safe circle as it is, challenge society as it is. In ACCEPT, we work with the fear, grief, and anger that arise when we are faced with limitations or disappointments in our lives. Through compassion for our emotions, we focus on accepting the current limitations of our PDAer’s safe circle, and the limits of our control (even if we are the PDAer in question!). We remind ourselves that disability has always been part of the human experience, and that stigma around neurodivergence is a systemic problem that goes beyond our individual lives. We see ourselves as part of the neurodiversity movement, which in turn stands on the shoulders of the disability rights movement, which in turn is part of the human rights movement. We lean on affirmations, and build power within The PDA Safe Circle™ to support systemic change.