Consulting & Speaking Services

Keynote Speeches/Organizational Consulting

Lynne Seagle

Lynne has served as Hope House’s Executive Director for almost thirty years. She is one of the country’s leading consultants in organizational development and supported living services. She consults widely not only throughout the U.S. but also within the United Kingdom, Canada, and Asia. In addition, she is in great demand as a keynote speaker for both human service organizations and businesses. To find out why Lynne is such a popular speaker, read this blog entry by Dave Hingsburger, a well-known advocate for people with disabilities.

The focus of her expertise encompasses organizational change, building self-directed work groups, and participatory management. Her clients have spanned the private and public sectors and include groups as diverse as the Industrial Relations Dept of NEC (Japan), professional and collegiate sports teams, environmental groups, architecture and engineering firms, oil companies, and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.

Ms. Seagle was awarded the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation’s International Future Leader Award in 1995, and was honored as the Virginia Administrator of the Year in 1986 by the Virginia Community Living Association (CLAMR). She has served as a member of the President’s Commission on Mental Retardation and is currently on the Advisory Board of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation.

For information on her availability for keynote, group or individual speaking/consulting, email lseagle@hope-house.org.

Click here to see a video of Maria Shriver presenting Lynne with the Kennedy Foundation Award.

Behavioral/Therapeutic Consulting Services

Angela Stevens and Paula Traverse-Charlton

Angela Stevens and Paula Traverse-Charlton are experienced in providing behavioral support to people with intellectual disabilities and mental health labels such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression, as well as traumatic brain injury and autism. Often, people with these sorts of disabilities or disorders exhibit what people in the field call “challenging behavior.”

What does that mean? Well, those of us who work for people who are labeled as having "challenging behavior" know instinctively what that means – whether it comes up in the grocery store, in the van on the way to work, only with one other particular person, or in someone’s living room every night just before dinner. You can bet the person with those behaviors knows it too.

Even for those of us who encounter such behaviors on a regular basis, it’s not always easy to know what to do – how to help someone negotiate the anxieties, frustrations, and communication difficulties that are so often a part of life for someone with a disability. More important, how do you keep yourself, and the person with those behaviors, safe?

Angela and Paula offer an array of therapeutic services, including a comprehensive assessment process, development of detailed support plans, and individual staff and team training. Consistently applied plan implementation and positive programming across all aspects of the person’s life can then render the behavior less of a challenge to the person and to those around them.

Ultimately, through effective, ongoing support, the potential for seriously challenging behavior becomes less and less of a driving force in the person’s life, and can be replaced by potential for real success.

These consulting services are rendered wherever they are needed – In the home, at work, at school or at residential and day placements. Behavioral support training is also offered to large groups covering more general topics of mental health and behavior, communication, positive practices and staff consistency.

Click here to contact Paula Traverse-Charlton. Click here to contact Angela Stevens.

Reimbursement is accepted through Medicaid waiver, third-party, or private payment.