BSG Social Learning builds trusting relationships with students and families to improve quality of life. The focus of BSG Social Learning is a process, not a product: our educators guide and share in the individualized process of self-discovery with our students. Our process is very specialized to each student, and applies personal relevance (passion and personal interests) to the process of learning about the self and the world.
Who are the individuals who work with BSG Social Learning?
BSG Social Learning one-on-one and group services are for individuals in upper-elementary through adulthood, who want to be better at relating to people, participating in group activities, and building/maintaining relationships. Not every client we work with has to have an official diagnosis. Most of our students have some kind of challenges navigating the social-emotional world, such as autism, NVLD, Asperger’s, PDDNOS, ADHD, Tourette’s, OCD, PTSD, oppositional defiance disorder, bipolar, or anxiety issues. Our school- and community-based services are ideally suited to high-functioning individuals.
What do you call yourself? Is this therapy?
At BSG Social Learning, we practice Omni-social Education. Learning to be omni-social means being able to understand your own way of thinking, and to relate to perspectives different from yours. Being omni-social means accepting the idea of a neuro-diverse world: we are all wired differently, and while we may share some similarities with others, each of us has our own personal logic. The more we understand our own nature – and accept and explore our strengths and challenges – the better we can begin to understand our reasonable accountability in interactions with others. Our goal is for every person to understand they do not have to be “just like everybody else”; as a result, we can come to accept with evolving interest what makes other people different, and see reason to respectfully accept those differences. We use personal relevance – what people know and like – as a vehicle for conveying new concepts and skills.
We are not clinically-licensed therapists, although we work closely with many therapists, educators, and other professionals – many families are referred to BSG Social Learning by psychiatrists, psychologists, family doctors, SPED directors, and speech and language pathologists. BSG Social Learning is not a therapeutic clinical environment, but these professionals and client families find general therapeutic value in our services (BSG Social Learning services are generally not covered under health insurance policies). Our staff has participated in the Autism Conference for Harvard Medical School, and the professional autism panel at the National Conference for the Autism Society of America. Over the last five years, numerous Massachusetts public school systems have consulted with BSG Social Learning to offer summer programming and professional development.
We think of ourselves as Omni-social Educators, because we share a deep, reciprocal learning experience with our students. Other terms that describe our role can include: relational logician, professional wing-man, coach, friend, social decoder, mentor, how-and-why specialist, and social detective.
Because interacting in our community is the critical foundation for developing Omni-social Skills, BSG Social Learning cultivates relationships with many professionals and varied community members. Students reap the benefits of interacting and learning with the BSG social universe.
What are the goals of BSG Social Learning when working with a student?
Self-awareness and Self-esteem – These come from an individualized process of looking at frustrating or unexpected situations and developing the ability to separate the action (what happened) from the individual (who you are, and your sense of self-esteem) in order to quantify the reasonable amount of accountability.
Interpreting non-verbal information to use in decision-making – Learning how to synthesize non-verbal information into your personal logic, so you can make more informed decisions and responses
Perspective-taking – Understanding your own perspective, and understanding that others have perspectives different from yours
Know yourself, Accept yourself, Embrace yourself – This is a meta-cognitive process of thinking about how you think, which prepares you for all kinds of situations, such as helping you prepare responses for your personal triggers, and learning the difference between reacting and responding to situations around you
Learning to generalize processes organically – BSG Social learning is not about treating people like programming a social computer, by memorizing “right” and “wrong” responses – it IS about discussing the “why” behind interactions to build dynamic social muscles. As a team, we learn to see patterns and variables, motives and perspectives, and discuss how to respond appropriately. It’s about building the ability to become excited about assessing situations instead of avoiding them.
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