Integrated Autism Therapies is dedicated to helping every client identify their barriers. The staff all work together to provide a positive environment for each client to grow and learn their purpose and have a better quality of life. 

Barb and Mark Niederhauser are the owners and founders of IAT. They founded the business in 2017. Their son was born healthy and developed severe autism when he was 18 months old. It was their goal to provide the autism community with services they wished were available for their son. 

The Niederhausers feel it is important that all families and clients are treated with respect at IAT. They have worked hard to find and hire high quality, compassionate, like-minded professionals that work hard for their clients. Their goal is that all clients feel heard and their unique needs are met.

They believe “that each client deserves to be viewed as an individual, and an approach that works for one child may not work for another, and that it takes a village of caring specialists and professionals to provide the best practice and service possible for this population.” 

The Niederhauser’s son was going between his therapy sessions, speech and OT. The sessions were all being done differently and it got confusing to their son. Barb Niederhauser didn’t think they were getting professional information and the therapists were contradicting each other. Barb and Mark started doing some in-home work and working out of pocket, so they got insurance. 

As soon as they were covered by insurance, with Utah’s high autism rate, “it seemed vultures came out to get paid and take advantage of kiddos under the spectrum. We found programs that said they would take our son. He was either pushed in the corner or mistreated. The programs weren't followed up on. They were cookie-cutter programs, one size fits all. They sure wanted to bill us. We were cancelled on some therapy sessions seven times in one week, and we were billed for it,” Barb Niederhauser said. 

Whoever the provider, Barb Niederhauser said they came with issues whether it was losing sight of the children, constant cancellations or therapists not showing up. 

At this point she wanted to do something for parents where they only had to make one stop, where they could come to the facility and the professionals collaborate, and are respectful enough with each other to stay in their scope of practice. She found that it takes a special breed to find providers that have respect and build each other up. 

"I wanted to find like-minded professionals that wanted to do what is best for the kiddo. The kid comes first,” she said. 

In starting their business it was important to Barb and Mark Niederhauser to have people who will work together and have the kids' best interest in hand. Barb Niederhauser wanted to avoid the pit falls she saw from her experiences. She wanted to make sure her staff was not blind-sided and would know how to handle the child. 

“We need to make sure that we're doing things that are getting a productive session and not have the RBT guessing what they should be doing because they don’t have a game plan for the child, or they have not been properly instructed,” Barb Niederhauser said. 

Barb and Mark Niederhauser have two buildings. The Sensory Gym building is located at 7733 S. Redwood Road. The Life Skills Center is located at 1902 W. 7800 South. The locations are close and convenient for clients. 

“It is very ideal and works out for our staff,” Barb said. 

They ended up getting a bigger space so they could expand OT and speech. They have a vast array of rooms, such as a quiet room, open gym, parent consultation room, conference room, study room, mini market, indoor playroom, ABA yellow and blue room and art room/education room. They have a professional development room for older children to get training for employment and how to look for jobs. They have a game room for the older kids, so they can feel like a young adult. There is a kitchen and laundry room for the older children to learn daily living skills. 

Barb and Mark Niederhauser are very proud of their staff and got together an advisory board with a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, occupational therapist and a speech pathologist. All employees are trained so they know how to deescalate situations.

 “It is the staff that makes it work,” Barb Niederhauser said. 

The service providers employed at IAT are appreciative of the environment. “We work really hard to make sure everything we do has a collaborative effort so none of us make business decisions without consulting with each other when it comes to direct patient care, just because things go a lot better with our clients when we are able to make decisions all in the same direction, we seem to do that really well,” Nate Cantor said, speech language pathologist. 

Brooke Shields is the Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Shields meets with the family and does a direct assessment to see where each client is. “We will write up a treatment plan that teaches them skills they need to drive independently, to take skills to other environments, and help generalize skills to help with their everyday lives,” Shields said. 

Lisa Smith, sensory clinic coordinator coordinated with Erin Grimshaw, Lily Kemp, Katelyn Blodgett, Taylor Mechling and Ileana Geary to paint the mural. These artists from Bingham High were in search of a capstone project for National Honor Society and contacted Integrated Autism Therapies to propse an art installation of a mural.

The students met with Barb Niederhauser to discuss the vision they had for the mural. They spent over 15 hours on a weekend to create and paint the mural at the Life Skills Center in West Jordan. 

“The art itself is as beautiful as the students who created it. They are extremely talented and deserve recognition for their desire to use their talents to serve and lift a community,” Smith said. λ