Meet IRL Social Skills Coach: Josh Negrini
At IRL Social Skills, we pride ourself on our exceptional team of coaches and support staff who make it possible for us to help neurodiverse youth, adults, and families. Our coaches are not only experts in their fields, they’re also amazingly well-rounded, genuinely interesting people with a ton of life experience they bring to the mix.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be introducing you to our coaches, so you can get a sense of what they’re about. We’re kicking things off with a video interview with IRL coach, Josh Negrini.
TRANSCRIPT:
Mara McLoughlin: Hey, well welcome back for another one of our Meet the coaches, interviews, and I'm here with Coach Josh, I have three questions. So the first question is, what are your credentials?
Josh Negrini: Well, I have a bachelor's in social work that I got from the Colorado State University back in 2005. And then after that I had worked in long-term care services for most of my career with people with a variety of intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as those on autism spectrum, and people with co-occurring mental health conditions. And then that experience turned into an opportunity to work with the state of Colorado, where I was a home and community-based services waiver coordinator which helps people connect to more resources in the community. And then more recently, at the end of December 2021, I graduated from East West University here in Portland, Oregon, as a licensed massage therapist.
MM: Oh my gosh, I love that. I love all the experience of our team and I especially love the mind body component that people are bringing to the table. Awesome. And so what do you love about IRL?
JN: Well, having worked in the field for most of my life, I think having another program outside of other services that I've seen that coordinate not only helping the person who wants to learn new social skills, but also bringing in a social coach and outside team support is just it's such a game changer. I've seen so much growth. I mean, a lot has happened during the session. So you see things happening all the time with growth while we're meeting. But really, it's between those sessions. It's knowing that they have a coach on hand. They're working on their homework. Those that are just truly invested to learn those, applying them. You know, over the course of time, it's amazing to see the confidence builds and the relationships develop and hearing stories of it actually working and coming from the background of being in the field. I mean that that is success right there. People being part of communities that they want to be part of, and be more confident is something that you can't help but just love.
MM: No, you can't even put a price on it. So can you tell us the story some like anecdote from one of our classes or you know, with one of our families that just warmed your heart?
JN: Well, I distinctly remember and this last session, there was a student that just really struggling and you know, they would say during session and on chat, just how they tried to apply the skills, but when they actually go to talk to people, there's just a barrier. And they tried and tried and tried and, you know, fell to the point where everything we were saying was just redundant. It's things they've learned things they've tried, why would they attend and so one of our coaches reached out and gave a one-on-one session and even after that session, they said no, I I've tried this and nothing has changed. I don't know getting any help from this class. Well, they kept they kept trying and within a couple of weeks, we started seeing that they were feeling more confident and they had more stories to share. In fact, they had increased interactions outside of the classes that they themselves thought I was not expecting to have this. And it just was really validating to see someone who was really trying so hard and almost ready to give up but they continued to endeavor. And they got—hopefully—what I think they were looking for.
MM: They had the experience where they proved themselves to themselves. And that's what I love— the effectiveness of our program and how it gets results. It's pretty amazing. Well, thank you Coach Josh and we look forward to seeing you in class.