Career Connections

Children have inspired my passion, motivation, and grit throughout my career journey. After spending my teenage years babysitting, I became a private professional nanny. This opportunity allowed me to observe intimate, unique familial relationships. I have learned countless skills regarding development, childhood trauma and traumatic responses, de-escalation techniques, and communication. Each of the three families I closely supported offered me opportunities to observe childhood development and family dynamics. I also became an advocate for the child, interacting with speech therapists, extended relatives, potty training, Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Parkinson's Disease, physical health barriers, and milestones from newborn to teenager. 

I am now a Registered Behavior Technician working for a growing and highly reputable ABA company. ABA, or Applied Behavior Analysis, is a form of therapy that helps foster age-appropriate independence and teach developmental skills to adults and children with Autism. I walk children through communication barriers, directly teach case-specific skills, and follow a code of ethics to protect my clients, company, and reputation of ABA therapy. 

View my resume Here.

I strive to implement my fields into every discussion post, assignment, and project I work on. Read my case studies here.

Research Methods Final Project: Critiquing a Study on Assigning Moral Responsibility

This project relates to my career as a therapist because morals, guilt, and perception are very often what put people in therapy. If I want to help people overcome these obstacles, I should have an understanding of how moral judgment and responsibility impact them. The study I chose for this project addresses exactly that- and my job was to analyze how properly the research was gathered. 

Social Psychology Final Project: How do psychological disorders develop in children?

A research paper reviewing five articles that discuss psychological disorder development and mental health concerns. In addition, a research gap and further investigation are proposed in order to further answer the question, "How do psychological disorders develop in children?" 

A large number of children battle psychological disorders, and much of my work will focus on helping them cope with their symptoms. In family therapy, I intend to learn about each child client in order to help their guardian support them better. By understanding how these disorders develop, as well as the impact of biology and parenting techniques on the child, I can help bring these ideas together and thus be a more effective therapist. 

CBT Treatment Plan: Anxiety, Agoraphobia, & Gender Dysphoria 

This is a mock treatment plan for a case I created. I was prompted to develop a therapy plan using my knowledge of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The case centers around themes of anxiety, agoraphobia, depression, loneliness, gender, sexuality, divorce, job insecurity, guilt, and grief. 

Case Study: Hyperactivity in a Child 

This study follows the assessment and testing of Arthur, a twelve-year-old boy struggling to focus in school. Patient background, test results, and treatment recommendations are provided. 

Instructor Feedback: You did an excellent job in this assignment. Your work has shown you are a deep thinker and able to synthesize the information and draw conclusions. 

Community Psychology Final project: An essay connecting my professional goals with community psychology. Key concepts of community psychology are examined through the lens of a therapy student, community member, and as applicable to stakeholders. The mental healthcare system, as well as discrepancies in such, is applied and critiqued as well. 

Pre-School and School-Aged Child Development: Final Project Presentation

This presentation details various aspects of school-aged child development, including attachment styles, trauma, family, cognition, and how to foster positive development. It also discusses research debates within the field, such as continuous versus discontinuous development and nature versus nurture. I use this information in my role as a behavior technician working with children of this developmental stage. I learn each child's attachment style and use it to better bond and empathize with them. I also have an ethical duty to recognize signs of abuse, so understanding atypical development helps me protect my clients. 

Discussions

Confronting Obstacles in Our Thinking: Beginning ABA Therapy

I relied on an assumption when I first began work in Applied Behavior Analysis therapy. This type of therapy teaches developmental and instructional skills to people (in my job, children) with autism. For example, I may prepare a five year old for kindergarten by teaching them to tolerate sitting in a chair for a certain period of time. When I began this job, I was weary of my role in my client's lives. As a person with ADHD and anxiety, I relate to many of the sensory processing difficulties that children with autism do. The idea of interrupting their processing simply because it may be slower than other children's felt daunting. I also was a nanny before this job and struggled with lack of attention as a child. In ABA therapy and according to the four function of behavior, attention is a common reinforcer for children and thus I would have to ignore them while they are doing a maladaptive behavior. 

The anecdotal evidence from my own concerns and those of those with no experience in ABA therapy caused me to dismiss additional evidence. I did not do research further than the first two sites on google, and I brought anchoring bias with me to my job. During my training, I learned that there is far more to ABA than punishment. In fact, ABA therapy (along with most modern therapies) majorly excludes punishment. We focus on analyzing the consequences of a child's behavior, as well as what occurred before the behavior happened. I, as the behavior technician, guide these children away from harmful behaviors and reinforce the behaviors that will allow them to flourish throughout social, emotional, and motor development. 

I have neutralized the need for punishing children by focusing on reinforcement instead. This has also given me peace of mind as I am more comfortable and confident in my work. I can and have seen the impact my sessions have on my clients, and so have teachers and parents. By analyzing different perspectives, such as those of my trainers, clients, client families, and others with autism, I can achieve a balanced understanding of ABA therapy. 

I am unsure if I would have picked this role had I fully understood what behavior technicians in ABA therapy do. One the one hand, I see that my kids still struggle- especially in the beginning of their ABA journey. Often, no matter how slowly I teach, the pressure causes emotional distress. On the other hand, it works in teaching them the necessary skills. This therapy has been strongly supported by evidence for years and my role has helped prepare me for a career in psychology. Critical thinking has offered me a complex perspective filled with both positive and negative opinions on this work.