Charity Background:
Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, Guy Shahar’s son, Daniel, regressed from a happy, playful baby to becoming utterly cut off from his parents and the world. He stopped responding to his name and gave no direct communication or eye-contact whatsoever. He lost much of his basic functionality, including his words and his ability to swallow solid food, and became prone to very frequent serious and prolonged meltdowns. Doctors were not optimistic and Daniel’s parents feared they had completely lost their son.
Then, they accidentally came across the Mifne Clinic in Israel. Through an intensive 3-week programme of specialist and nurturing psychotherapy, his life was transformed. His parents were trained and equipped to continue this revolutionary work in the context of their daily lives. Now, aged 9, he is a contented, joyful and loving boy who hasn’t had a single meltdown for over 5 years – unimaginable before his treatment.
88% of infants treated at Mifne go on to mainstream schools, usually without any support, compared with approximately 20% of children who haven’t been treated there. This is the amazing clinic that we want to bring to the UK.
Report from Israel TV News showing how one family was transformed at the Mifne Centre there:
Guy Shahar's TED talk, The Beautiful Reality of Autism, lays out what The Transforming Autism Project is all about at heart:
We are also working towards a comprehensive one-stop online portal providing all the support and guidance that a family with an autistic child could need. It will be exactly the resource that those of us who set up the charity, as well as many others, wish had been available to us and which, incredibly, still doesn’t exist. It will be thoroughly researched, beautifully presented, intuitively navigable and easily assimilable in order to maximise its reach and impact for the families who truly need it.
The story of how their visit to Mifne fundamentally turned Daniel’s life around and inspired the creation of the charity is told in Guy’s TED talk, and in more detail in his book. Find out more about out charity's essence and goals in our brochure.