Your guide to whole-person care​

Increase collaboration and holistic care with an organized assessment and treatment plan

Say goodbye to
isolated approaches…

and hello to integrated
personalized care!

Too often, practitioners are not trained in how mental health and developmental disabilities intersect with each other.

Parents are often told what to do instead of developing a shared understanding based upon their own stories.

This leads to gaps in care, creating challenges that persist or escalate—extending an already steep learning curve.

From an endless paper trail to the faces of exhausted parents and disconnected children, the weight can be too much for individual practitioners to manage.

The NRF brings added value to any promising practice or evidence-based treatment. The NRF matches treatment models with a person's neurodevelopment and engages the family in truly informed consent. This is evidence-based practice at its best.

Nurture resilience with the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF)

We educate and train practitioners to provide customized, collaborative, and cost-effective care.

At the NRF Institute, we value supporting all families in need regardless of their resources.

“Before the NRF, I was doing my work using a medical model.
Now, I have a more efficient and organized approach to provide
comprehensive care for my patients.”

– CAROLE ANNE, INFANT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD PSYCHIATRIST

The NRF at a Glance

“The NRF is the most efficient, understandable way to discuss a child’s
presenting issues with a family. It also provides a comprehensive way
to identify what we might have missed when we are stuck. It helps with
increasing a family’s reflective capacity.”

– PRACTITIONER, ALASKA, EARLY INTERVENTIONIST

Our story

As a medical and mental health professional, founder and executive director Connie Lillas, RN, MFT, PhD, saw the gaps when helping clients with complex needs. As a parent, she endured the heartache and frustration of navigating a system that left her floundering and feeling alone without a roadmap for her son’s care.

After witnessing the growth in her own child who had complex needs, she sought to create a framework that would guide other parents and practitioners who were tired of figuring everything out on their own.

And so, the NeuroRelational Framework was conceived.

Dr. Lillas co-authored a textbook with Dr. Janiece Turnbull, a UCLA trained pediatric neuropsychologist. This led the way for what the NRF Institute is today: an innovative social enterprise company comprised of passionate practitioners around the world.

We care about children and families in complex situations that require customized services.

We have seen our data tracking methods support resilience – for practitioners, parents, and the children we love.

“Overall, we have had a great experience with our providers! They
have taught me a lot of tools that I now am able to use when
caring for and raising my children.”

– PARENT, ALASKA EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAM

NEW TO THE NRF? START HERE.

Sign up for our FREE Starter Kit, with videos and downloadable handouts to support a more holistic intervention with children and families.

“The NRF increases efficiency by having the ability to have a shared language to talk about stress and relationships with families. I had a parent text me the other day, “He is very ‘red’ today, we are running late.” That one‐color identification provided tremendous insight on how to approach and respond to the family as they came to the group session that day.”

– PRACTITIONER, ALASKA, EARLY INTERVENTIONIST