Journeys With PDA 2026 Retreat
Nobody knows your child better than you. This retreat is built on that.
You will sit in the same sessions as the clinicians, therapists, and educators — deliberately. You get the frameworks first-hand, at the same time they do.
We know how the schedule can read from the outside. Sessions that carry continuing education credit, clinical language in the titles — it can look like a conference for people who study your family rather than one for your family. Some caregivers skip it for exactly that reason.
Here is what that assumption misses: there is no separate, watered-down parent track. You hear the material unfiltered and first-hand, at the same moment the practitioners do — and you get to ask your question in the room, in front of the people who will carry the answer back into their own work.
What caregivers report
We do not survey attendees for marketing quotes. The patterns below come from conversations, emails, and the things families tell us in the months after the retreat.
You get the actual material, not the simplified version
The same sessions, the same frameworks, no separate parent track. Caregivers regularly tell us they left understanding the reasoning behind recommendations they had been handed for years without explanation — why a strategy is supposed to work, and why it so often does not for a PDA child.
You can ask, in the room, in front of everyone
Caregivers describe asking a question from lived experience that a clinician then carried into their own practice. The exchange runs both directions — your question shapes the room just as much as the presenter's answer does. That is the part that surprises people.
The other families
For most attendees this is the first time being in a room where PDA needs no explaining and nobody is quietly judging the accommodations. Caregivers describe this as the piece they did not know they needed, and it is the most common reason people come back the next year.
Language for the conversations at home
Attendees leave better equipped for the meetings that follow: with schools, with providers, with family members who do not understand yet. Not scripts — a clearer grasp of what is actually happening with your child and why, in words you can use.
What the days look like
Sessions run from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon, with an optional pre-retreat day on Thursday, and talks, panels, and Q&A time built into each block. Families and professionals attend together — there is one schedule, not two.
The schedule is built with downtime on purpose: unstructured community time, coffee chats, shared dinners, and quiet space to step away when you need to. Nothing about the weekend requires you to sit in a chair for eight hours straight.
Children and family members are welcome — many attendees bring the whole family and trade off session time, and stepping out of a session when someone needs you is normal here, not awkward. You will not be the only one.
Practical concerns
We will be straightforward: a retreat weekend costs money, and it costs time away from a family that likely needs you. Caregivers weigh that honestly every year, and we do not pretend the trade-off is small.
On cost: a limited number of financial assistance awards are available to help reduce the barrier to attending. Funding is limited and awarded based on eligibility and available funds, so we encourage early applications. Learn more and apply for financial support.
On travel: the retreat is held at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Tempe, with a group room rate and an airport shuttle, so logistics stay simple. Many families extend the trip and use the weekend as a break for everyone, not just the person attending sessions.
On whether it is worth the time away: the caregivers who return year after year are the best evidence we have. Most describe leaving with more capacity than they arrived with — not less.
Reserve your seat
October 23–25, 2026 · Tempe, Arizona
1520 W Baseline Rd, Tempe, AZ 85283
Reserve your seatQuestions? Email info@journeyswithpda.org
Attending from the other side of the table? Read the professional page.