Center Grove grad opens new autism therapy center in Greenwood

A Center Grove graduate has opened a new autism therapy center in Greenwood.

Life-Long Behavior Therapy opened its doors to patients earlier this month at 2503 Fairview Place, Suite A, Greenwood. The center was established by Hunter Long, a Greenwood native and Center Grove graduate, after working for various other centers as a registered behavioral technician, or RBT, and after a conversation he had with his brother-in-law, Casey Gore.

“I had mentioned to him, ‘Hey, I kind of want to do my own center. I want to do my own thing,’” Long said. “He was fully on board. He said he wanted to help me in any way he could.”

Gore is helping on the financial side of the center, while Long is handling the clinical side — speaking face-to-face with families and working directly with clients and the therapist, he said. They were able to enter into the space on Sept. 1, and since then Long has been working to get the facility set up and spread word about it, he said.

Life-Long Behavior Therapy’s website says they emphasize behavioral outcomes as well as emotional and psychological growth when it comes to applied behavioral analysis, or ABA, therapy. ABA therapy is the most common form of treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder, and it can improve social, cognitive and behavioral outcomes in some children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as the overall well-being of the child and their family.

At the center, clients can practice gross motor play, via a gym and trampoline, and pretend play, via toy kitchens and workbenches that are set up in the main room. They also have a corner with puzzles and an alphabet rug for children to learn about and practice those skills as well.

The center also offers parent training, which helps the kids learn the skills at home.

“Whatever we work on here at the center, I want to make sure that parents are on board,” Long said. “If we’re working on toilet training or teeth brushing or anything that can help the family, I want them to be able to take that home and work on it as well.”

For Long, it’s all about natural teaching. He wants kids to come into the center and be motivated to move around various activity stations, and wants the therapists to make these encounters all teaching moments, he said.

“If someone is reaching for a puzzle with different colored pieces, I want that therapist to make that a teaching moment,” Long said. “Teaching colors, teaching the alphabet if there’s different letters on the puzzles — that’s huge for me.”

Currently, Life-Long Behavior Therapy is only offering ABA therapy. As the center grows, Long hopes to add speech and occupational therapists, he said.

For example, one day Long hopes to be able to go down the hallway and speak to a speech therapist about how they can help the patient start vocalizing or communicating better. The goal of having his own center was to have a collaborative approach to treating children with autism, he said.

“When it comes to helping children with autism, I think all those services are great. It’s a collaborative effort,” Long said.

Having speech and occupational therapy in-house will allow make it easier for parents. Instead of running from place to place for their kid’s appointments, they could just get it all done under one roof — ABA, speech and occupational therapy, he said.

Other planned additions include an outdoor playground in an adjacent enclosed yard and possibly a sensory room. For the sensory room, Long is leaning toward adding beanbags for chairs and neutral lights to make it a relaxed room, he said.

“A lot of kids on the spectrum need that sensory input, so I’d like to make it a very relaxed room where they can go when maybe they need that that sensory input,” Long said.

Right now, Long is the only behavioral therapist on staff. Once the center starts getting more clients, he plans to start hiring additional staff, he said.

The whole point of establishing the center is to help families in need, especially as there is always a waitlist for ABA centers, Long said. Thousands of children are reportedly on waitlists to receive ABA therapy in Indiana, according to Indiana ACT for Families, a coalition of parents, ABA therapists and providers.

“Going out and doing my own thing offers just another location that that families can look into,” Long said.

Long hopes to make as many families happy to come to the center and work with him as he can.

“If I can leave here every day with the knowledge that the families love coming here, then that’s a job well done, I guess, for me,” he said.

Life-Long Behavior Therapy is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. To learn more about the center, go to lifelongbehavior.com.