The Heart in Applied Behavior Analysis
Hi, hello, and good morning.
The next series of blogs may strike a slightly different tone from our prior series. The reason why? Kyle, husband of Carly (and where we get our name ... Carly x Kyle = Carlyle), will be taking to the keyboard.
I grew up in a household abundant with two things: love and art. On the surface, those go pretty hand in hand, yet as you dive deeper you learn the complexity of it in our household. My dad, an artist and natural entrepreneur (before the word was cool), found himself opening a screen printing business around the age of 23 to allow him financial independence, and an outlet for his creative spark. Meanwhile, my mother would build an extensive and successful career in teaching – specifically to children deemed ‘Emotionally Impaired.’ It’s hard to argue there isn’t bias here, but I can’t think of two people who’ve worked harder in their craft. My dad, found his crossroads between art + business owner and pushed tirelessly, and my mom poured her heart into questioning the status quo of her discipline and how to further it along.
I start with this as I find it a prerequisite for you to understand why we, at Carlyle Center, believe heart is a necessary component to not only Applied Behavior Analysis, but everything.
A Contemplation of Heart
In order for us to dive further into heart, we need to level set it. What is heart and how should it be defined?
When you search “define: heart,” in the Google search bar you’ll receive the following:
heart
/härt/
Noun
1. a hollow muscular organ that pumps the blood through the circulatory system by rhythmic contraction and dilation. In vertebrates there may be up to four chambers (as in humans), with two atria and two ventricles.
Synonyms: informal ticker
"his heart had stopped beating"
2. the central or innermost part of something.
Synonyms: center, central part, middle, hub, core, nucleus, kernel, eye, bosom, navel
"right in the heart of the city"
Verb INFORMAL
1.like very much; love.
"I totally heart this song"
It’s a good start, yet pales in reality to where we are going with this. Think about ways you’ve used it, or heard it in the past:
“I put my heart into it.”
“She has heart.”
“What is your heart telling you to do?”
By my standards, none of the above definitions really equate to what the definition of heart is. When someone says they’ve put their heart into something are they saying, “I put my hollow muscular organ that pumps the blood through the circulatory system by rhythmic contraction and dilation into it?”
I don’t think so.
They are saying they gave it everything they got.
They are saying they met it with intent.
They are saying they can walk away feeling comforted in the fact it was there, present, and able.
So, for the sake of this exercise, let’s give heart a new definition.
heart
/härt/
Verb
1. a purposeful effort to bring passion, compassion, and connectivity to your daily practices.
With this definition in mind, why aren’t we talking about it more in Applied Behavior Analysis?
Putting Love In Our Ethos
When we were in the very beginning stages of creating Carlyle Center, a key activity for us was the development of our values. When Carly and I first started thinking about our own center, well before actually starting it, the values we’d build it upon was at the core of everything.
So as we got to these values, we started thinking about what they’d be, one of which ended up being “supportive.”
While I come from a non-therapeutic background, Carly of course does. As you dive into Supportive, you’ll see we expand upon it with the following paragraph:
When you talk about supporting one another, you talk about loving one another. Whether it be with our team, clients, fellow professionals, or community, our goal is simple: support the people we surround ourselves with.
There is one sentence here that caused extensive back and forth discussion. The sentence?
When you talk about supporting one another, you talk about loving one another.
The word love, as a matter of fact, was identified as too taboo of a word to use. It gave people, as I recall the discussion going, weird feelings. It wasn’t therapy. It wasn’t measurable. It wasn’t Applied Behavior Analysis.
I thought… who cares.
Perhaps this suggests a lackadaisical mindset. Perhaps it suggests an unwillingness to hear another perspective. Perhaps though, it is necessary, and when done with a purposeful effort to bring passion, compassion, and connectivity to daily practices, that love becomes heart.
And with heart – as we’ve defined it – therapy can be better.
It’s a Balancing Act
While heart may enhance therapy – taking it a step further – we believe purposefully understanding and executing a balanced approach can separate one center from another.
Carly, for a moment is going to jump in and share a definition that aligns closely with the Carlyle Center approach:
Some Words From Carly
In Applied Behavior Analysis, we know there are a variety of factors beyond the diagnosis of Autism that should be weighed, understood before, and during, ABA therapy.
The following definition touches on that:
“Evidence-based practice of applied behavior analysis is a decision-making process that integrations (a) the best available evidence with (b) clinical expertise and (c) client values and context.” (Slocum et al., 2014)
As you take a deeper look, you’ll see a list of items to be considered while identifying nuanced approaches to each individual instance:
Prong 1 Science
Not just best evidence
Comprehensive picture
Critically look at the evidence
Prong 2 Client Values
Social validity
Responsible decision making
Includes implementers
Prong 3 Clinical Experience
Education training and experience
Application of evidence to individual cases
While the above may seem like common sense, it is far from. The above takes ABA therapy a step further in realizing therapy must mold to best answer an individuals needs, while staying within its own principles and ethos.
This means we should not be seeing the exact same approach for each child. Instead, we should be seeing BCBAs and Center’s approach each new family with this three-prong understanding. That in itself, is using the heart.
Back to Kyle. Where Do We Go From Here?
Carly and I started Carlyle Center because Carly felt like heart wasn’t all that present in the industry, and wanted to feel as much passion for the company she worked for as she did the therapy she provided.
Through my experience working for several startups, and Carly’s education & real-world practice, we felt as though we had the background to create a meaningful company, dedicated to state-of-the-art ABA therapy.
Where we go from thinking this way, to spreading it throughout Carlyle Center and the industry is still to be determined. We do know one critical factor in getting this right: we have to take it slow.
While this delays Carlyle Center’s ability to take this meaningful, intentional ABA therapy to more families, it mitigates a far greater problem – getting it wrong too early. If you ask us what Carlyle Center will be in five years, the vision is grand. Yet we’ve learned to get there, we must trust in each step carefully. This isn’t something we can move too fast in, nor want to. Rather, we are here to take a methodical approach to a very powerful adjustment in our craft.
By intentionally building slowly, we open up our hearts to getting it right.
Slocum, T. A., Detrich, R., Wilczynski, S. M., Spencer, T. D., Lewis, T., & Wolfe, K. (2014). The Evidence-Based Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis. The Behavior Analyst, 37(1), 41-56.