Our Story

In 1999, Carrie McGee met Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen while searching for a therapist to work with her son, Alexander, diagnosed in 1996 with Williams Syndrome. At the time, balance and coordination were such serious issues that he had difficulty negotiating uneven surfaces, and even a small flight of stairs terrified him.

After a year of regular therapy with Bonnie, utilizing the Body Mind Centering® techniques which she developed, Alex had improved to such a degree that he was climbing playground structures. A year after that, he was turning cartwheels. Carrie watched as the development of these physical skills brought about astonishing changes in Alex. More adept at managing the sensory input of the world around him, his cognition improved as did his ability to participate happily and fully in a mainstream classroom.

Having learned from Alexander’s success, and hoping to use her background as a Health Services Administrator and twenty years’ experience teaching gymnastics, Carrie proposed a collaboration using Bonnie’s therapy techniques (Body-Mind Centering®) in a weekly gymnastics class for children with a variety of special needs.For the next two years, the Body Mind Centering® -Gymnastics program was held each summer. Classes were refined and developed to accommodate a wide variety of participants with many different types of special needs, including Autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, Williams Syndrome, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, seizure disorders and sensory integration issues.

As word spread and enrollment increased each summer, Carrie and a core group of parents saw an obvious need for more classes with greater variety that continued throughout the year – a center dedicated to families raising children with special needs. The concept of Whole Children took shape, a Board of Directors formed and incorporated, and in March, 2004, they were granted tax exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3).

In 2004 Whole Children opened at 8 River Drive in Hadley, Massachusetts. That year Whole Children offered 16 classes, including yoga and gymnastics and served 43 families. In July, 2010 Whole Children affiliated with the Association for Community Living, an agency in Springfield with a long history of working for and with families and people with special needs.

With the affiliation Whole Children moved to bigger quarters at 41 Russell Street in Hadley. The site includes a gym, separate movement space for preschoolers, and a teen room. The Hampshire Family Support Center, also a program of the Association for Community Living, is also at 41 Russell Street and has worked with Whole Children to offer classes and social events for older teens and young adults.

In July, 2011 the space is being expanded to include a cafe space that will serve as a work, performance, educational and social space for teens and young adults.

Whole Children represents a group of parents who have learned that, given the opportunity, our children can far surpass even our own expectations, and the more doors that are open to them, the more they may discover the worlds that await their success.