A new pathway...
In 2016, we shifted gears and began to test the benefits of a novel development program for Autism created by American Autistic engineer Ron Davis. We started building his abstract life concepts, such as Change, Consequence and Time, in 3D clay models.
What happened next was far better than we could have imagined.
Discover
We are psychologists and teachers who want to help our clients develop, function well, achieve wellbeing, relate and connect, enjoy their lives and express their unique talents and potential in the ways that they want and which are meaningful to them.
We are collaborative, truthful, trauma-informed, ethical, curious, accountable, clinically rigorous and we seek safe, ‘real-world evidence-based’ outcomes.
Our gold standard is: are our clients’ lives changing and is it in ways that matter to them?
Our aim is to help our clients master their own developmental journeys so that they can move about the world with less overwhelm and confusion, engaging in school, work, life and relationships anchored by a sturdy connection to who they are, their strengths and their intrinsic self-worth.
Becoming Me
A case study
Therapies
We provide assessment and psychological therapies for a range of adult, teenagers and children who are seeking help with their mental health, psychological wellbeing and developmental journeys .
We are also the only psychology clinic in the world to provide the Davis Concepts for Life℠ Approach as part of a whole-person approach where we integrate the program into a clinical psychology ‘wrap-around’ treatment or therapy plan. We provide the Davis Approach to children, teenagers and adults who identify as Autistic and Neurodivergent and our assessment indicates they will benefit from this approach. We also deliver Davis programs to people seeking psychological care who may identify as Neurotypical and are seeking assistance because they feel persistently ‘stuck’ in daily life due to problems on repeat. Our clinical research shows the Davis Approach, which involves mastering a series of abstract life concepts by building them in 3D models, has helped to improve the self-concept and interpersonal boundaries of many of our clients and research participants. Adding this method into their therapy plans has also helped to create stable shifts in anxiety, social anxiety, perfectionism, over-thinking, time management, procrastination, problems with sequencing daily life, and school ‘I can’t’.
Research
EMERGING OUTCOMES
Dr Jacinta Ryan, together with a team of Autistic and Neurodivergent co-researchers, has undertaken the world’s first independent clinical case-study research project investigating the effectiveness of the Davis Concepts for Life℠ Approach, a novel developmental program for Neurodivergent people seeking to improve their wellbeing and ability to manage daily life.
After delivering, case managing and observing more than 90 Davis Approach programs since 2016, Dr Ryan reports the outcomes of the case study research indicate the Davis method is a gentle, respectful and powerful program that can cause life-changing shifts, improvements in mental health and positive cognitive and social-emotional development when it is provided to the right child, teenager or adult in the right way at the right time.
Dr Ryan has presented her case study findings to the 2022 Australian Psychological Society’s (APS) Clinical Psychology Conference and also delivered a webinar to the APS Clinical College on how the Davis Approach works and might be feasibly introduced into the therapy and treatment plans of Neurodivergent and Neurotypical clients seeking mental health care and help with functional difficulties in daily life. A sample of her archival data has also been statistically analysed as part of a Masters of Psychology project at Australian Catholic University in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Davis Life
Concepts
Approach
Meet Anna Berghamre
I am a senior teacher and I deliver the Davis Life Concepts Approach in my role as Head of Education at Developing Me Psychology. I am passionate about developing people of all ages so they can live fully (and love) the life they live. How we understand life, how well we operate in the world around us and how we relate to each other depends on what’s going on inside of us, and there is so much untapped potential in You, Me, and Us. My aim is to help you master the abstract cognitive concepts that we all need - such as Change, Consequence, Time, Motivation, Responsibility and Relationship - in order to live our lives with confidence and clarity, and in line with who and what we are as unique individuals.
About Us
We work in Australia and internationally with mental health, education, paediatric and wellbeing teams to provide tailored, whole-person therapies and programs safely and effectively.
The work we do is grounded in a commitment to empathic power and the importance of Neurodiversity in leadership at the personal, community and institutional level.
From our Clinical Case Study Research Blog
