What is the Role of a Behavior Analyst?

At its simplest, a behavior analyst is an individual or a member of a team of psychological professionals who use behavior therapy as a means of helping individuals who have experienced psychological trauma. While the psychological trauma does not necessarily have to result from the occurrence of and rehabilitation from a catastrophic injury such as a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a spinal cord injury (SCI), it often does. Behavioral therapy may be used alone or concomitantly with cognitive therapy. If used concomitantly, the term often used to describe it is “behavior modification” or “cognitive-behavioral therapy”[1].

It is important to recognize the difference between the two approaches. Cognitive therapy is based upon the proposition that thoughts, behavior and feelings are connected to one another. It theorizes that individuals can overcome their challenges, meet their goals and achieve greater well being by changing the way that they think and how they view their circumstances. Cognitive therapy involves the individual working with a therapist to develop skills for testing the validity of, and, as needed, modifying beliefs, identifying what may be distorted thinking about himself, herself or others, relating to others in different ways and changing behaviors accordingly.

In contrast, behavior therapy focuses upon how an individual reacts to the triggering event. The event could have been, for example, a stroke that has hindered the client’s ability to speak clearly and thereby be understood. Or, it may have been a spinal cord injury that, pending the completion of NeuLife’s Client Goal Plan including rehabilitation and specialized rehabilitation, affected the individual’s physical independence.

Because the medical, rehabilitative and post-acute interventions may take time, it is understandable that the client may become frustrated by his or her disabilities and self-perception of helplessness. He or she may display this in ways that seem to be “acting out.” Instead of, or in addition to the cognitive approach, NeuLife’s behavior analyst, in conjunction with RNs, psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals formulate and implement a behavioral goal plan of clinically relevant services for the client. It may consist of some or all of the following modalities, depending upon the client’s needs so as to achieve the best possible outcome:

• Discussions about the development of and learning coping mechanisms;
• Role playing;
• Relaxation methods, including breathing techniques and meditation;
• Positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors;
• Activities to redirect focus to things other than the injury or disability;
• Journal writing;
• Social skills training; and
• Modification of response to anger, fear and pain[2].

While even under the best of circumstances behavior change can be hard, it can be especially hard for an individual who has sustained a catastrophic injury. Quite apart from the physical dimensions of the injury and its immediate medical consequences are the longer-term implications. These may include the individual perceiving himself or herself as less of a person, or worse, somehow at fault for the change.

Although a wholesale reversal of cognitive and emotional impairments may not be realistic, the modification of certain behaviors, with the help of a behavior analyst, may be more realistic and allow the reintegration of the client into the community and activities of choice[3]. The intervention of an analyst with panoply of remedial behavioral skills may be able to go far in rehabilitating the client. The behavior analysts associated with NeuLife will work in conjunction with other professionals to develop and to execute a Client Goal Plan appropriate to the client at his or her post-acute stage of rehabilitation. The analyst will develop and implement adaptive techniques for the client to use throughout the his or her residential living, supported living stages of care and thereafter, all with the goal of advancing him or her toward independence and to ensure the best possible successful and sustained outcomes.

The professionals at NeuLife, including its team of psychologists, psychiatrists neurologists, RNs and therapists are expert in the provision of innovative, clinically relevant services, including the creation of NeuLife’s Client Goal Plan, and delivery of neurobehavioral and neurorehabilitative services. NeuLife’s goal is to provide post-acute rehabilitation to its clients to achieve the best possible outcome for those who have even the most difficult and challenging diagnoses.

NeuLife’s philosophy is that healing, wellness and personal fulfillment are best accomplished in a positive and uplifting therapeutic environment where caring staff encourage, assist and support each client so he or she may achieve specific goals. NeuLife believes personal fulfillment is equally as important as goals to increase function and independence. NeuLife seeks to achieve maximized, sustained outcomes that exceed the expectations of all persons served.

NeuLife, in Mount Dora, Florida, is a fully accessible residential post-acute program providing specialized rehabilitation to individuals diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic amputations and other catastrophic injuries.

2725 Robie Avenue

Mount Dora, Florida 32757

[1] http://www.healthline.com/health/behavioral-therapy#Techniques3

[2] Ibid

[3] http://www.brainline.org/content/2009/06/interventions-for-behavioral-problems-after-brain-injury_pageall.html