an interest-based approach
cultivating connection
building capacity for agency and autonomy through interest-based skill-development
Here’s how ABA disconnects us
from our feelings, needs, wants, & Ways of knowing:
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) focuses on the external environment and externally observable and measurable behavior.
This disconnects us from our feelings because of the disregard of information from our bodies and the sensations that arise within them.
Positive reinforcement is given when external goals are reached.
Positive reinforcement is provided through things like comfort items (which meet sensory needs) or time spent doing activities of interest (which often meets emotional and creative needs).
This sets an expectation that we are only deserving of what we need when we do exactly what is expected - they are framed as rewards instead of needs.
Only providing access to pre-determined goals, strategies, and processes limits the ability to connect to our wants and ways of knowing.
If there is only “one right way” to do everything, this automatically cuts us off from imagining otherwise. We are prevented from finding our own ways to engage with the world and, over time and based on experience, find out what we want.
When we have difficulty figuring out and communicating our feelings, wants, and needs, it may be because we have not had the opportunity to learn the skills to do so.
However, it is possible - and we can figure it out together!
We will work together to:
Map the Foundation
Identify externally- and internally-defined goals, strategies, & processes by examining daily routines.
We do this to see what is possible within the systems that currently exist - the conditions of possibility.
This also is an asset-based approach, because many resources or behaviors that were not previously considered resources or skills may be reframed as such.
When everything is spelled out, it gives us an opportunity to actually choose what we want.
This sets the stage for practicing autonomy and agency.
Get Interested
Identify and learn from what is interesting.
Interests (i.e. special interests, hyperfocuses, or things that make you curious) are home base.
Cultivating roots within ourselves takes a home base. By rooting ourselves in what is interesting (and intricately known to us), we make the practices of both stability and change more possible.
Scaffolding action atop of, as well as regulating emotions and communicating from this type of home base sets us up for a sustainable lifestyle.
Play with Possibility
Practice moving towards what is interesting.
Our interests tell us what lights us up - what makes us most alive. When we move towards our interests, we are really moving towards ourselves.
This is a practice of self-trust, autonomy, and agency.
This is often where friction arises between what was previously reinforced and necessitates building the capacity for generative discomfort together.