We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Celeste Briggs recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer Celeste, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
My optimism regarding my daughter Sarah, who has special needs and is on the autism spectrum, comes from realizing how many challenges she has overcome that at one time seemed impossible. When she was an infant, my husband and I didn’t know if she would learn to roll over, let alone crawl or walk, but with a lot of hard work and many different therapies, she did. When she was four years old and not talking and not making regular eye contact with others, I trained at the Autism Treatment Center of America to learn how to run a Son-Rise Program for her. I called my program Sarah-Rise and ran it for five years. She received anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours a day of focused, loving playtime that followed her lead and interests, while encouraging language, eye contact, and interaction. Every tiny bit of progress seemed like a miracle, and I kept telling myself if something could happen once then could happen twice. Her language exploded, her eye contact became easier and more regular, she learned to play games and play imaginatively. She learned to eat healthily and to use the toilet. She learned to read and write. Each of those things had seemed impossible at one time and yet now she is thriving. For any challenge she is dealing with currently, I remind myself that I can’t predict the future and that anything is possible.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My book, <i>Watching Sarah Rise: A Journey of Thriving with Autism</i>, comes out in January 2025. It’s about an intensive home therapy program that I ran for my daughter that helped her learn to speak, make eye contact, and connect with others. It was a life-changing journey, full of struggles and successes. I’m focusing on spreading the word about the book so that my book can spread the word about The Son-Rise Program. Many people haven’t heard of it, but it is an incredibly loving approach to connecting with people with autism, following their lead and never stopping repetitive behaviors. Those repetitive behaviors are used as the doorway to connection. The training at the Autism Treatment Center of America can be done online or in person. I don’t work there and I don’t train parents, but I do want to share my story because my daughter is thriving beyond my wildest imagining. Running the program helped our whole family feel love and joy instead of guilt and fear about my daughter’s autism diagnosis.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I am constantly looking for what methods and people can help me be the best version of me, as a person and a parent, that I can be. That quality, of being open to how I can change myself in order to impact the people around me and have a better experience personally as I navigate the world, led to my running a Son-Rise Program for my daughter Sarah. That program helped her more than any other therapy. I am continually humbled to realize that if I change my own perspective then my daughter responds differently to me. If I am truly calm about her upsets, instead of pretending to be calm, then it makes a difference. Now I have the skills to notice when my daughter is ready to connect and when she isn’t, and I can think creatively about how to combine her interests with whatever skill I want to help her learn. For instance, when it is time to clean her room, it works best if I can first get her pretending to be Toad from a Frog and Toad story about Toad not wanting to clean his room. She loves pretending to be book characters, so it turns a chore into play. My advice to anyone on the parenting journey, is to find people that help you understand yourself without judgement, because that is where the possibility for growth and change resides. As you become more free from your own judgements, it is easier to be creative and loving regarding your children, and then everyone has more fun.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
The people at the Autism Treatment Center of America were the most helpful in terms of training me to run a Son-Rise Program for my daughter. They taught me the details of how to set up a playroom and how to effectively work with my daughter to help her with language, eye contact, playing games, interacting with others, and to work towards any skill she found challenging. They also helped me explore my own feelings and judgements about myself and my daughter. As I explored those feelings and judgements (and continue to do so), I let go of emotional bricks of guilt and could breathe more freely. I could think more creatively and I had more free attention to focus on both of my daughters. Even though I’m done running a program for Sarah, I still find it incredibly helpful to have support in exploring my beliefs as a parent and anything that gets in my way of a clear loving connection with my daughters.
My mom has also been incredibly helpful through my entire life. She taught me from my earliest days that it was okay to have emotions and that once I get my sad or mad out then I will be sparkly and clear again. She taught me, by how she parented me, to listen to my own children and be with them as they move through their feelings. That has helped me create the loving home my children are growing up in, where we know we can have big feelings but we always come back to connection and love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.watchingsarahrise.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifercelestebriggsauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553320125974
Image Credits
Bonnie Culbertson Carl Wellington Jennifer Briggs
