Leanne Mairs, MSW, LICSW
Clinical Director
Therapist & RDI® Program Certified Consultant
(pronounced [ mahrz ])
I am a licensed social worker. Most of my life has been spent seeking out opportunities to make a positive impact in the lives of those around me and in my community. I have come to believe that happiness is not a destination, but a journey. A journey that I started some time ago.
My Background
After receiving a two year business degree, I continued to wrestle with the challenges that came my way until I finally earned my Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Freshly graduated, I found it still too soon to make the decisions that would have me in one role for the rest of my life, so I embarked on a journey called the Peace Corp. I chose Poland for my placement and in the autumn of 1998 I found myself in a small town in the northwest of Poland, near the German border.
My time spent in the Peace Corp helped me feel more comfortable with the direction my life should take. One of the most valuable lessons I learned while abroad was that there are two parts to any question; the asking and the answering. Unless you are prepared for both parts, a question should not be stated. Upon returning to the States, I joined a newly formed program called AmeriCorps. Under this, there were a variety of programs to choose from and I chose to join one of the Rapid Response Corps, which was located in Chicago, IL. During my two years of service, I was allowed to experience a wide variety of situations and came away with a much stronger vision for my own progression in life.
When I returned home to Minnesota, I was accepted into the Social Work Master’s Program at the College of St. Catherine. I now had a tangible plan of how to best use my talents and experience. I set out to help children who had experienced crisis or trauma.
Autism
While I was in the Peace Corps, my sister Shellie had a little boy. By the time he was two, she sensed there was something amiss and took him to be tested. One day, when I was driving from Chicago to Minnesota, she called me on my cell phone. She was very serious and asked me if it was OK to tell me something. I said, “Sure,” not knowing what on earth could be so upsetting. Shellie worked through a little of the history up to this point and finally told me that her little boy had an Autism Spectrum Disorder. She kept talking, but I don’t remember about what because I kept waiting for the bad news. Not hearing it, I finally interrupted her and asked, “Is that it? Is that what you wanted to tell me?” She said yes, it was. I exhaled and said, “Well that’s nothing. We all have something. His is just called Autism”.
Through her relentless internet searches and endless parade of workshops and support groups, something stood out and really excited her. It was RDI®. That was over 8 years ago. She has since had another little boy (also with ASD) and has not stopped talking about RDI® or trying to implement it in her own home.
I did not jump on the RDI® wagon with both feet right away however. Upon graduating with a Masters in Social Work, I started the certification process to become a consultant, but I worked for Hennepin County for a year. While continuing to pursue certification, I worked in the Disaster Department of the St. Paul Chapter of the Red Cross during the time our country experienced the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Autism and Me
Currently, my efforts have turned to the needs of our smallest citizens – children with Autism. Certification took two years and included three separate trainings and a year of supervision. In caring for my nephews and other children with autism, I was shaken by the daily stress and anxiety experienced by these families. Much of the available interventions were not addressing what was actually wrong; as if they were putting a band-aid on a broken leg. As an employee, I did not feel like I was being heard so I finally decided, with my sister, to form a company to help kids and families through the enormous bewildering maze of autism information. Given the vulnerable nature of most ASD kids, I saw a growing population of kids that had been traumatized or abused with no place to turn to for help. It only seemed natural for me to combine all the knowledge and experience I had gained through my years of doing trauma/abuse work and my work with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
I have a little boy of my own now. He is not Autistic but he helps me with Autism everyday. He is funny, smart, talented, cute, energetic, brave, and sweet. But, most of all, he provides the best education an adult can ever have; that everyone started from nothing and built up to something.
As with all things I do, the teams I build have members with complimenting skills. In deciding to be a team, utilizing our strengths and offering services together and separately, Shellie and I have come up with a place for people to get answers and breathe. A place to find out that ASD is just something called something else.
I am further along on my journey of happiness.