Course Overview

Description of the Event:  Applied behavior analysis (ABA) practitioners report high levels of burnout, exhibited as exhaustion and disengagement. Turnover, a stressful and costly experience for individual practitioners and the human service organizations that employ them, is a potential consequence of burnout. Work-life balance and work engagement are associated with lower burnout and lower intention to quit. Research concerning behavioral predictors of work-life balance, work engagement, and burnout—all of which are associated with turnover intentions—among ABA service providers is scant. In this presentation, attendees will learn about relevant research related to professional self-care, be given an overview of five dimensions of professional self-care, hear about findings from the presenter’s recent research on whether and how the use of self-care strategies influences perceived levels of work-life balance, work engagement, and burnout among ABA practitioners who work in human service settings. The presenter will engage attendees in a discussion about how engaging in self-care practices supports ethical practice within behavior analysis, as well as actions that practitioners, researchers, supervisors/educators, and the field can take to support the development and maintenance of self-care skills and practices.

Number of Learning CEUs: 2; Certified behavior analysts can earn 2 Learning CEUs (including 1 Ethics CEU)  for watching the recording, responding to the Course Evaluation and Feedback form, and completing the CEU Survey. 

Attendance Procedure: Attendance/verification codes will be shown and read during and at the end of the video recording. Attendees will need to enter these codes into the CEU Survey.

Course Covers the Following Behavior Analysis Content: Ethics, Practice, Research

Course is Designed For: Professional Behavior Analysts, BCBAs/BCBA-Ds, and BCaBAs. This event is also open to others with an interest in behavioral interventions for health, sport, and fitness, including students in graduate-level ABA programs.

Course Level: Intermediate

Access Duration: Course is available to purchasers for a duration of 7 days.

Course Objectives

At the conclusion of the course, attendees will be able to:

  • Describe the five dimensions of professional self-care.

  • Identify examples of target behaviors within dimensions of personal and professional self-care.

  • Describe how and why engaging in self-care practices supports ethical practice within behavior analysis.

  • Describe actions that practitioners, researchers, supervisors/educators, and the field can take to support the development and maintenance of self-care skills and practices.

Course Curriculum

  1. 1

    • Watch the Recording
  2. 2

    • Professional Self-Care Practices for ABA Practitioners: Course Evaluation and Feedback Survey
  3. 3

    • Professional Self-Care Practices for ABA Practitioners: Attendance Codes & CE Survey

Instructor

Lead Instructor

Julie Slowiak

Julie M. Slowiak, Ph.D., BCBA-D is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Executive Director of the Behavior Analysis in Health, Sport, and Fitness SIG, a non-profit organization, and Founder of InJewel LLC, a values-focused coaching and consulting company. Julie earned a B.A. in Psychology and Organizational Communication, M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Ph.D. in Behavior Analysis. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral. Julie's research, teaching, and applied work focus on designing physical and social environments to support individual and organizational health, performance, and wellbeing. Her research blends her training in applied behavior analysis and organizational behavior management with topics studied in the fields of occupational health psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and applied sports psychology.