What our families are saying:
"The therapists here are wonderful and very caring."

Group Leaders
Lizz Ramirez B.A. RDI Consultant, holds a B.A., majoring in Psychology and Sociology, from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She has been supporting families and individuals for almost 10 years. When first entering this field, Lizz was part of a supplemental program to Early Intervention (EI) that supported family and children ages 0-3 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. During her time there, she held the role of Autism Service Provider and later transitioned into Team Supervisor for the Central Middlesex region of the program. Lizz was able gain experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams while supporting families and children within the home, daycare/preschool and/or community setting. In addition, she gained experience assessing, developing goals and objectives and providing supervision and guidance to her team. Lizz also supported families through the IEP process as their child aged out of the program and transitioned to public school which has been an invaluable skills set she has obtained.

Lizz later transitioned to a private program in Lexington for children with social and emotional learning differences where she co taught Kindergarten, First Grade and led social pragmatics groups. This is where she first gained experience with Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) philosophies and techniques, Zones of Regulation, and Social Thinking curriculum. Lizz continued to see firsthand how invaluable parents/caregivers are to supporting children with social and emotional challenges and RDI was the tool set she was missing! When deciding she wanted to begin the process of becoming an certified RDI consultant, Lizz was determined to collaborate and learn from the only other active consultant in MA, our very own Linda Murphy! Lizz joined our team in August 2016 as she began her training and was an active part of our admin/insurance team and led social pragmatics groups. Just a year later, Lizz became certified as an RDI Consultant and began applying more of what she learned in her training at Peer Projects-Therapy from the Heart. During her time here, Lizz has continued to grow her experience with families and the individuals that she works with, ranging from toddlers to young adults. In her spare time she enjoys volunteering for MA Special Olympic Programs (swimming, boating) for teens and adults where she has applied much of what she's learned from RDI to strengthen her relationship and communication while guiding athletes. Currently, Lizz is our Group Training and Development Coordinator for our social pragmatics groups, provides RDI consultations for families and more recently has collaborated with Linda on her Declarative Language workshops with families all around the world! Lizz looks forward to using her passion for RDI to spread the word on how powerful the methodology and tool set can be!
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Sean Patrick Walsh A.A.S. first began working with children 8 years ago, as a teacher’s assistant at an elementary school, while earning a degree in Architectural Engineering. From there he became an after-school program instructor throughout several public and private schools on the north shore, teaching kids (K-6), engineering and physics concepts using LEGO. To better assist some of the children with special needs who joined these programs, he attended The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders training on the DIR Floortime® model, earning his first certificate. As his passion for helping children grew, he connected up with The FUSE Program and Preschool in Lexington, MA, where he was trained in and applied Relationship Development Intervention® (RDI) and Social Thinking® strategies. There, he gained experience as a camp counselor, 1:1 aide, home provider and eventually a lead classroom teacher.  While teaching in the preschool, he earned his second certificate in DIR Foortime® from the ICDL. He also currently co-runs the sports program SCORRE, working as coach. Sean joined Peer Projects Therapy from the Heart in the fall of 2015 and is now with us 20 hours a week running groups (including our new social pragmatics LEGO® group on Fridays at 3:30!), seeing individual clients, and helping out in many ways behind the scenes. Look for our weekly quote board in the waiting room. This is just one of Sean's many contributions! Sean is thrilled to work and learn from the amazing staff and children he sees at PPTFTH.