Ep 21: Shifting Perspectives on Autism with Vicky, Pier, and Gabbi Westra
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode Summary:
In this Trailblazer podcast, Sarina Fazan talks with Vicky, Pier, and Gabbi Westra about their family’s journey from an autism diagnosis to the foundation of their nonprofit, Autism Shifts – and their ultimate goal to create a worldwide shift in perspectives on autism.
The Westras’ story starts with their desire to be parents. After struggling with infertility for seven years, Vicky and Pier began looking to international adoption. They first saw a picture of Gabbi when she was 9 months old, living in an orphanage in Romania. Vicky remembers, “When we saw it [the picture], we just said, this is the child that was supposed to be with us.”
But it would take well over a year and half before they held their daughter. Vicky’s advice to other adoptive parents going through such a long and emotional process is to visualize the end result. She says, “Be happy now, no matter if that child is not with you, you can still conjure up the emotion of what you want to create, right? And, really, it’s the joy that you want with your family.”
Pier continues, “Look at it this way, you want to have a child, but your joy of having a child isn’t just when the child is in your arms. It’s the entire process, right? ... So, going through the process, be as happy as you can in that process, and it will make everything a lot easier. I wish we’d known that then.”
Gabbi was two years and three months old when she finally came home to Vicky and Pier, arriving two days before Christmas. But they soon started to notice that their daughter needed help. Vicky explains, “We had immediate concerns. They didn’t tell us that she was not walking yet. She was really not talking. We had learned some Romanian words and she wasn’t reciprocating any of the language. So, the next day, we actually took her just to check to make sure that there was nothing physically wrong with her.”
However, Gabbi still wasn’t meeting her milestones, and the family started down the path of testing. At the age of four, she received the diagnosis of autism. Vicky describes their feelings, “There was a lot of emotion, you know … We’re very spiritual people and so we have a strong faith in God, and we thought, how could this happen? How could we go through this path to this joyful life that we were envisioning and then we get this news? And, of course, if you do research, even today, on autism and you start looking at how it’s presented, it’s really very challenging. And so, I can see why parent’s feel like, what does this mean for us? Fear of the future. What’s going to happen for our child, you know? But I think we immediately got into the mode of finding the right resources for her.”
This effort to build a strong foundation for their daughter led to another life altering decision for Vicky. She walked away from the corporate world to create opportunities for Gabbi and others diagnosed with autism. Vicky launched a coffee company and opened Artistas Café, a first of its kind coffee shop employing those with autism. At the same time, she founded a not-for-profit organization, Autism Shifts, in 2007.
Vicky shares, “It was a God moment…It all came together, and when it did, there was no way I could have thought of this on my own. It’s very inspired.”
And that inspiration kept coming from an unexpected place. Vicky recalls, “I went out to teach these young adults about how to integrate into the world at large, you know, because they’re different. Their characteristics are different. And so, the goal at the time was to help them fit in. And, of course, what I found out was very different than that. Because, as I got into their world, I realized, wow, this is an amazing world that they’re in, and we don’t even realize it. We’re trying to get them into our world, which you can see sometimes there are challenges in our world. And, yet, they’ve got things that really in their world are so beautiful. So, they were teaching me…It’s not about changing them, it’s about understanding them.”
This shift in perspective, from seeing autism through a lens of its challenges to seeing it from the lens of its beauty, became the focus of Autism Shifts. Vicky says, “I think we as a community need to shift how we view this diagnosis ourselves and kind of be the change we wish to see in the world. If, really, we’re embracing it and we understand it and we’re empowered by it, then we can go out and advocate really everywhere, right?”
The nonprofit organization took on a clearer vision, specializing in training, resources, and opportunities for the local autism community to connect. Autism Shits continues to offer a variety of programs, workshops, and membership options for individuals on the autism spectrum, parents and caregivers, and local businesses, providing tools and resources to help create a new world of opportunity.
The Westras believe that the time is right for this shift to happen on a national scale. Vicky explains, “You’ve seen it with different movements that have happened historically. The Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, the LBGTQ Movement, those are all communities that first really needed to become empowered to really make a shift for themselves. And that’s where we’re at.”
Autism Shifts is working to remove the stigma around autism, and they are asking people to join them as “shifters.” Pier says, “Now we have an opportunity to pull people together. Having somebody to talk to is such a huge thing, no matter what’s going on in your life, you want to call a best friend, you want to call somebody who’s going to be able to relate to you. And what better than to have a group of parents or another group of autistic individuals that these individuals can reach out to and say, this is what I’m feeling. And they can say, yeah, I’m feeling that too.”
With online programs and training, people can now connect with Autism Shifts – and each other – easier than ever before. For more information about Autism Shifts, visit their website at www.AutismShifts.org or follow them on social media @autismshifts.