Trauma-Informed Practice in ABA
Mission/Objectives:
This SIG is focused on providing resources for behavior analysts to incorporate trauma-informed practices into their work with all clients in a manner that is conceptually systematic, ethical, and within the scope of practice of behavior analysis.
Description of Membership
The members of this SIG will be composed of behavior professionals (BCBAs, BCBA-Ds, RBTs, and others) who are committed to providing compassionate, comprehensive, and ethical behavioral services that take the whole person and their experiences into consideration at all phases of behavioral intervention from intake to discharge.
News and Updates
2026 Annual Meeting.
Join us at ABAI in SF for our Inaugural Meeting!
Saturday, May 23rd at 7:00PM
Moscone Center West, Level 2, 2024
Webinars
Stay tuned!
Events
Join Dr. Jeannie Golden at ABAI in SF for a pre-conference workshop!
Trauma From a Behavioral Perspective: Families, Schools, Prisons & Military Veterans
Friday, May 22, 2026
8:00 AM–3:00 PM PDT (UTC-07:00)
Moscone Center West, Level 3, 3007
Area: CBM/CSS; Domain: Service Delivery
CE Instructor: Jeannie A. Golden, Ph.D.
JEANNIE A. GOLDEN (East Carolina University), PAULA Y FLANDERS (Private Consultation), SARAH HAYES (Granville Correctional Institution)
Description: Behavior analysts are often charged with the responsibility of dealing with challenging behaviors and may be unaware of the impact of underlying trauma on these behaviors. These challenging behaviors are frequently not amenable to traditional functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and positive behavioral interventions (PBIs). This may be because behavior analysts are reluctant to incorporate distal setting events, discriminative stimuli, and motivating operations into their FBAs, which is essential to the incorporation of trauma into these analyses. Further, it is necessary to acknowledge the impact of verbal behavior in implementing effective interventions, as covert thoughts and feelings often are the establishing operations that motivate challenging behaviors. This workshop will familiarize participants with FBAs that incorporate trauma as well as with strategies that use verbal behavior in conducting interventions. Populations we will address include families, students, prisoners, and military veterans.
“
A failure is not always a mistake; it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.
— B.F. Skinner