About Us

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Building Joyful WV Families through FUN and positive behavioral supports!

WHOLE Families West Virginia is an agency that brings therapeutic play and applied behavioral analysis to families impacted by special needs.

We use games, crafts, art, music – even your xbox or tablet! – to help children and teens learn new skills in language, self-regulation, sensory management, and cooperation.  And every step of the way, we encourage families to share, laugh, play, and have FUN.

We also provide extensive crisis interventions for families impacted by special needs. We help keep children and teens out of jail and residential treatment; help kids transition home from jail or residential treatment; help families negotiate truancy laws, Individual Education and 504 Plans in school districts; and support families who need alternatives to traditional schooling.  We have a long history working with local magisterial courts and testifying to help children and teens with diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder or developmental delay.

Who we are:

Joseph R. Scotti, PhD, BCBA-D, WV licensed clinical psychologist, has been working in the field of behavior analysis and positive behavior supports for over 40 years. He helped pioneer the field of applied behavior analysis and has worked with persons in large and small institutional settings and group homes, in schools and agencies, and now with families in the home. He is an expert on intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, and has helped infants to adults learn how to reach new goals and find greater independence.

Scotti is also an expert on families in the military. He coordinated several statewide surveys of West Virginia Veterans, and testified about the findings before the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the United States Senate. He regularly helps at Camp Dawson, and with other military programs. He is an expert in traumatic stress and how trauma impacts persons with disabilities.

Yup, google him. You will find lots of articles written by him through google-scholar!

Claudia Neely, MA, MDiv, BCBA, WV licensed professional counselor, has also been working with children and families for 30 years. Before working in applied behavior analysis, she taught daycare and preschool for decades (yup, that is where she learned all those play dough recipes, and the 12 different verses to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), before learning how to help her own two children who were diagnosed with autism.  She knows and understands what it is like to have therapists come into your home when the dishes are dirty and the house is a mess…

Claudia also worked for a decade with inner city teens in an after-school arts program, which is why teenagers don’t scare her.

Play is the job of every family!