Barbara LaSalle

Education

Barbara LaSalle earned a Doctor of Philosophy.

Career

Barbara LaSalle is a former kindergarten teacher. To date, she serves as a marriage and family therapist who runs a psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles. Besides, LaSalle is a tireless advocate for people with mental illness, a lecturer, workshop leader, and documentary filmmaker, whose films include It's Not All in Their Minds, Living with A.D.D., and What Happens When My Child Grows Up?

Also, Barbara LaSalle is a writer. She wrote her memoir of raising her son Ben, who for years suffered from an undiagnosed illness. Ben was born in 1969 and could read and speak before he could walk. His social abilities lagged due to his inability to handle changes in daily routines or loud noises, his lack of coordination, and his aversion to grooming. Ben also had many physical ailments, including Crohn's disease, asthma, crossed eyes, and obesity. LaSalle strove, often unsuccessfully, to find schools and friends who would accept her son and doctors who could pinpoint what ailed him. Ben bounced through many group homes and mental institutions and even landed in jail. LaSalle was frustrated and found herself sometimes disgusted with her own child. In the book Finding Ben, she is frank about her feelings of anger that her child was not "normal," and she confronts her own failure to deal with the situation. Ben was diagnosed at age twenty-five with Asperger's syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder. LaSalle and her son were relieved to have a diagnosis, and the book ends after they achieve this success.

In 2008, just five years after the publication of Finding Ben, LaSalle's son got cancer. Ben died in 2010. Based on his blog, where Ben chronicled his battle with cancer, and LaSalle's writings about what it was like for her, the sad sequel Losing Ben is born. To date, LaSalle continues to work on this book.

Achievements

• Barbara LaSalle is best known as a writer. At present, she is the author of Finding Ben: A Mother's Journey through the Maze of Asperger's, a memoir of raising her son Ben, who for years suffered from an undiagnosed illness.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Finding Ben

    (Frank, honest, and beautifully written, Finding Ben is a ...)

    2003

Views

Quotations: "I tried seeking comfort in the blog Ben wrote, chronicling his battle with cancer, likewise my own writings about what it was like for me. So the sad sequel Losing Ben is born. I am writing it now, not only to relieve my grief but also to transmute it. Before he died, Ben taught me that the process of mourning, though necessary, is also selfish. It creates nothing. It produces nothing. It leaves nothing behind."

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Corey Seeman: "LaSalle does a good job of showing the thin line between gifted and disabled that exists with Asperger's children."

Connections

Barbara LaSalle had a son, Ben LaSalle.

Son:

Ben LaSalle