All conferences are for parents and professionals.

Michelle is a guest speaker at most of the conferences listed below, except where noted. Some of these conference have very limited or no space for outside applicants. Ticket prices vary tremendously between these events. Please communicate with the contact person listed for each conference to find out more about ticket availability and price.

Michelle Garcia Winner received a Congressional award of special recognition for her development of Social Thinking, a treatment approach for social and communicative challenges.

The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published research supporting the use of Social Thinking methods for treating Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism. This approach is equally well known for its breadth and flexibility for treating and teaching a range of individuals struggling with social learning.

Michelle's inspiring and practical conferences are designed for professionals and parents alike -- for anyone working with students and adults who are experiencing social and communication problems (high-functioning autism, Asperger's, ADHD, nonverbal learning disorders... or no diagnosis!). Listed below are the events Michelle's organization, Social Thinking, hosts. Registration is open to all. Early registration is suggested and offers a discount!

The Social Thinking Training & Speakers' Collaborative

Michelle is part of the Social Thinking Training & Speakers' Collaborative, a group of professionals specially trained in and actively practicing Social Thinking. Please take a look at the Social Thinking Training & Speakers' Collaborative if your group is not near one of the regions of Michelle's conferences below.

Comments from Participants

• "One word: Awesome." - school psychologist

• "The most intelligent, humane understanding of socially challenged people I've ever had occasion to hear" - parent

• "Every general education teacher who is privileged to include students on the spectrum in their classroom would benefit from this workshop" - Kindergarten teacher

• "Simply great parenting strategies to use with all kids!" - parent

• "Chomping at the bit to take it back to the school district"  - occupational therapist

• "Great source of valuable, practical information" - marriage family therapist

• "I can take everything I've learned here and put to use in therapy" - SLP

Below are descriptions of Social Thinking courses that our speakers give to groups and organizations around the country:

Section currently under construction. Thank you for your patience. 

Financial Disclosure about Our Products and Speakers

In 1998, Michelle began speaking to the public regarding her thoughts related to Social Thinking. Back then the concepts were just emerging and she was presenting only on the ILAUGH Model of Social Cognition. From the beginning, many of the audience members requested she write a book that contained the concepts reviewed in the conference. Michelle, impulsive as she is, decided she could do this and Social Thinking Publishing was born.

With the publication of our first book and as Michelle’s workshop audiences grew, so did the request for more published products; 14 years later we now have numerous user-friendly books we create and publish and we also carry a number of other authors’ books that we want to share with the public. We continue to have frequent requests for us to publish more products, so many requests that we cannot keep up!

As we present conferences many audience members ask us specific questions about the materials we have developed and how they weave into the materials being discussed at the workshop.

We also employ or contract specific professionals to share Social Thinking’s message with the public. These select professionals continue to develop further treatment ideas based on the research, knowledge of Social Thinking and their own clinical experience in their clinical practice. These same speakers are also assisting in product development for Social Thinking as our work is very much about developing and sharing strategies which can be immediately applied by other professionals who are learning to create treatments which incorporate Social Thinking methodologies.

The professionals who work on our staff are: Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal; they are all SLP’s with their clinical competency certificates.

We also contract with the following professionals to speak for us as part of the Social Thinking Training and Speaker’s Collaborative:

Nancy Tarshis, Kari Palmer, Ryan Hendrix, Debbie Meringolo, Gretchen Schmidt-Mertes, Cathy Decker, Renee Attaway and Nancy Clements.

Our practical, functional approach is where we run into a dilemma.

As we share our treatment ideas during conference sessions, it makes the most sense to simply say where strategies can be found (either for free on our website and/or in our marketed materials). The majority of you will be happy with that approach, but some of you won’t. This is where we walk a fine line, as some people do not want us to discuss materials we have developed. We can understand this, but we also understand many people have come to the workshops in order to not only learn about the information but to figure out how to put products to use in their clinical or home setting. For example, when we speak about our Friendship Pyramid, people then want to know where they can learn about that strategy in our written material.

We know it’s impossible to please everyone but we also want you to know that we are aware of this and always try to minimize the feeling of a sales pitch because it’s never meant to be one. On the flip side, we also try to tell the public where they can get the multitude of free articles and blogs we have on our website. We try to always remind workshop attendees that they can learn a lot about Social Thinking by simply reading the materials on our website. 

We are disclosing the financial tie we have to most of our speakers and many of the products that we sell.

Please know that much of the core information and newest thinking about Social Thinking can be found for free on our website, www.socialthinking.com; in the form of articles and blogs. Please look under the tab, “What is Social Thinking?” We make great effort to provide the public with free materials, our website is loaded with downloaded content and we share this information with the audience during our conferences.

South SF Providers Conference Materials

June 22, 23 & 24 2012

Social Thinking Providers Conference June 24-26

The Social Thinking Clinic

The Social Thinking Clinics are teaching clinics. As a result, the therapy groups may be observed by professionals selected from around the country and the world to study Social Thinking and at times participate in treatment sessions. Confidential information about your child will not be shared with them beyond what the professional who may be interning with us needs to know to plan an effective lesson. At all times when a professional works at our clinic they will be accompanied by the group's lead clinician and all planning will be implemented only after it is approved by the lead clinician. All clients applying for services from the Social Thinking Clinic must understand and agree to the training component at the clinic. The preference is given to the older child and our therapists also treat adults, as there are few services available for these individuals.

If you are interested in applying for services, please read the About the Center page in the left menu and the documents below. Then, fill in and return the appropriate documents. For questions, please call 408-244-2005.

2012 Summer Program at Socail Thinking Stevens Creek

Social Thinking Clinical Services

The Social Thinking Clinics, founded by Michelle Garcia Winner, are dedicated to developing and practicing innovative treatment approaches for assisting individuals with social learning disabilities, including students and adults with high-functioning autism, Asperger Syndrome, nonverbal learning disability and related diagnosed and undiagnosed social-communicative difficulties.

More on the Social Thinking Clinics

The Social Thinking Clinics are teaching clinics. As a result, the therapy groups may be observed by professionals selected from around the country and the world to study Social Thinking and at times participate in treatment sessions. Confidential information about your child will not be shared with them beyond what the professional who may be interning with us needs to know to plan an effective lesson. At all times when a professional works at our clinic they will be accompanied by the group's lead clinician and all planning will be implemented only after it is approved by the lead clinician. All clients applying for services from the Social Thinking Clinic must understand and agree to the training component at the clinic. The preference is given to the older child and our therapists also treat adults, as there are few services available for these individuals.

Social Thinking Clinic Locations:

Social Thinking Santana Row (STSR)
3031 Tish Way #800
San Jose, CA 95128
Call: 408-244-2005
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Thinking Stevens Creek (STSC)
3550 Stevens Creek Blvd #200
San Jose, CA 95117
Call: 408-244-2005
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Thinking Boston (STB)
www.socialthinkingboston.com
142 North Road, Suite SS
Subdbury, Massachusetts 01776
Call: 978-610-6603
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you are interested in applying for services, please read the About the Clinics page in the left menu and the documents below.

Click the buttons below to learn more about our San Jose services

Click the button below to learn more about our Boston services

About the San Jose Clinics

Michelle Garcia Winner's response: Twelve years ago I started providing private clinical services for people with social learning challenges in Silicon Valley. My original clinic, Michelle Garcia Winner’s Center for Social Thinking, grew in size and became a training ground for talented clinicians who delivered top notch services related to my core teachings. In 1999 these concepts were in their infancy and my therapy and travel load was manageable. As Social Thinking became internationally known, I became swallowed by an intense travel schedule, book publishing responsibilities and my own clients’ needs, and realized that something needed to change. In 2008, with the help of Pamela Crooke, we launched a non-profit dedicated to the core principles of Social Thinking - Teach Social Silicon Valley (TSSV). I donated much of my original clinic to TSSV and then helped to financially support this group as they established themselves.

Read more...

About the Boston Clinic

Social Thinking Boston, run by Nancy Clements, MA CCC-SLP, opened in late 2012 as a fully endorsed clinic licensed by Social Thinking. Nancy is a member of the Social Thinking Training and Speakers Collaborative and was former Program Manager of the Social Thinking and Communications Services program at the Stern Center for Language and Learning in Vermont, where she developed a comprehensive Social Thinking program which served over 60 children weekly.

Read more...

Contact Us

Social Thinking Santana Row (STSR)
3031 Tish Way #800
San Jose, CA 95128
Call: 408-244-2005
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Thinking Stevens Creek (STSC)
3550 Stevens Creek Blvd #200
San Jose, CA 95117
Call: 408-244-2005
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Thinking Boston (STB)
142 North Road, Suite SS
Subdbury, Massachusetts 01776
Call: 978-610-6603
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Books and Other Social Thinking Offerings

Books and other tools offer Social Thinking strategies and teaching methods for use at home and school -- and are a large part of the success of this treatment approach. This website will post new Social Thinking books, confernces and the latest thoughts on therapy through Michelle's blog. Please sign up for Michelle's newsletter to get our updates developments.

The Social Thinking Facebook page is also an active venue to exchange ideas on Asperger's, high-functioning autism, ADHD social-cognitive issues and more. Social Thinking is also on Twitter which alerts you to new posts.

Media Contact

If you'd like to do a story on Social Thinking, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call the main office at 408.557.8595, or call 415.814.0248.

Recent Stories on Michelle Garcia Winner and Social Thinking

"... the leading expert in the field of social skills." - GreatSchools.org, in article on the Massachusetts requirement for IEP teams to consider and address the social skills needs of children on the spectrum. Click here to read the article.

"...one of my favorite authors in the field of teaching emotional intelligence. Michelle Garcia Winner has pioneered some very helpful ways of conceptualizing and helping educators understand the social challenges that students on the autism spectrum face."

- Stephen Borgman, Psychology Today, "Spectrum Solutions",  Read more at Psychology Today

"[Winner's] ideas are rapidly gaining currency... Crucially, Social Thinking is used not just to help children on the autistic spectrum, but also [those] who have not been diagnosed with any problem but who, without guidance, may never learn the rules of friendship..."

- The Independent, London, UK, February 15, 2011

The largest newspaper in the UK, the Mirror, featured Michelle, as did the Independent, for separate articles on the difficulty students experience developing friendships.

The UK's Teachers Magazine featured Social Thinking in the article, "ASD in the USA." Participating in the teaching of Superflex, the author writes, "This was an incredibly fun, visual and accessible way of teaching flexible thinking – not only for the children with ASD, but their classmates too..."