I’m Tanya Yarkoni, a mother, longtime family caregiver, writer, mindfulness teacher, and endlessly curious student of the brain, human potential, and what might be possible beyond what we think we know.

I’m the mother of three amazing daughters and have been married to my husband, Dov, for nearly thirty years. Our middle daughter, Leia, is non-speaking and autistic, and raising her has taken our family down paths I could never have imagined.

Over the years, we explored almost every modality we could find — ABA, DIR/Floortime, Son-Rise, biomedical approaches, cognitive training and, more recently, Spelling to Communicate (S2C). Each experience has shaped how I think about autism, intelligence, communication and our tendency to underestimate what we cannot easily see.

I’ve always loved research and inquiry, particularly in neuroscience, consciousness, mindfulness and wellness. I’m fascinated by the brain’s capacity to adapt and by the question of how we can remain healthy, curious and fully alive through difficult circumstances.

That philosophy has shaped our family life too. We never gave up our love of traveling, even though caregiving made it harder. We traveled the world with our daughters and eventually made Costa Rica our home. I love Ashtanga yoga, meditation, healthy living and, these days, hiking ridiculously steep Costa Rican paths to keep myself strong in my fifties.

My work with Integrative Caregiving grew from my own experience of long-term caregiving and my fascination with what years of responsibility, uncertainty and stress do to the brain, nervous system, identity and the lens through which we see our lives. I’m currently writing a book about the survival adaptations we develop through long-term caregiving, how they can quietly become a way of life, shaping what we see, how we feel, and who we become.

Now that lens is widening again as Leia’s journey into text-based communication raises new questions about intelligence, communication, energy and consciousness.

In Costa Rica, we are launching our camp and caregiver wellness experience for families using text-based communication, with a longer-term vision of creating retreats, residences and communities that offer non-speaking individuals and their families greater support, connection and possibility.

At the heart of everything I do is a question I keep returning to:

What becomes possible when we widen the lens?