The Love Story- Episode 2

The speaker, Casey Schwartz, shares her journey and the reasons behind her career path in behavior analysis. She had various jobs before finding her purpose in working with families and advocating for children with autism. After her daughter's diagnosis, she became passionate about ABA and decided to pursue board certification. She emphasizes that ABA is not a disability, but a service that provides support and resources for families. She encourages others to see the value in ABA and shares her commitment to providing the best services for families. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hey, guys. Welcome back to Newbie ABA. This is yours truly, Casey Schwartz. I'm a student behavior analyst working towards my board certification. I kind of want to get a little personal today. I figured since all of you dedicated yourselves to listening to me, have no idea who I am or what I'm about, I should share a piece of myself. I've always wondered why people choose the career path that they choose. Like, why do doctors become doctors and lawyers become lawyers? I mean, myself, I've kind of all been all over the place. When my first big girl job, I worked at a hospital on the Alzheimer's wing working the night shift, and I thought I would become an RN one day. And then after a nasty failed engagement, I moved to Las Vegas, and I entered the small world of property management. I stayed in property management for 15 years. I met so many people, and I had so many great experiences, but I also dealt with some of the saddest moments of my life. And then we moved to the East Coast after the birth of my second daughter, and I continued in property management. I worked for an amazing company, and I always thought, like, this is it for me. But the thing about property management is investors like to sell, and that, my friends, is inevitable. So one day while I was dealing with, like, a decent finding that my daughter might be hard of hearing, and I was trying to deal with that, I found out that our investors decided to sell our entire portfolio. And I was angry. I mean, I was so angry. Not at them, of course, but at the fact that I couldn't get the calm in the storm. I was drowning. And the waves just kept piling on. I still hadn't dealt with my daughter's diagnosis of autism, and I was just doing everything I could to be busy and not deal with it. And everyone around me kept saying, You're so strong. You're such an incredible mother. I could never go what you're going through. And I hated that. Like, I didn't want any of that. I didn't want to be strong. I didn't feel like an incredible mother. In fact, like, internally, I was just blaming myself. You see, I have an autoimmune condition called hypothyroidism, and I am literally the worst at taking my medication every day. And then I got pregnant, and I continued to not be good at taking my meds. And I knew that uncontrolled hypothyroidism can lead to neuro deficits and neurospinal conditions. And I knew that, but it's like I didn't. So fast forward two years, and I'm watching my child not meet milestones and have some pretty intense behaviors, and I knew that something was wrong. I went down this rabbit hole and did the thing that you're not supposed to do. So, like, I Googled everything, and everything kept popping up with autism. I took some assessments that I found online, and then I took all that information, and I went to the pediatrician. And then the pediatrician agreed for further testing, and that's when we saw a behavior specialist within the clinic. And that behavior specialist at first said it was separation anxiety, but then after spending some time alone with my daughter and having toys thrown at her and watching my daughter play, she agreed, yep, we should probably get her evaluated. So fast forward two more years, and my daughter was finally diagnosed with autism. And I remember they handed us this packet like 16 pages long, and all I kept seeing was disability, disorder, et cetera. Try swallowing that pill, right? I wanted to surround myself with this information and make it my world. So I started by volunteering, but I just never really felt like I was doing my part. I didn't know how to reach families, and I didn't even really know what I was talking about because, I mean, I'm just one parent of one child with autism. And on top of all of this, my entire portfolio at work is for sale. So I remember calling my mom and crying and telling her, like, I can't take this anymore. And my mom said, listen, I'm going to help you. You should work with these families. Be a parent advocate. And the next thing I know, she's sending me job postings, and I don't know, I just applied. And then I met my mentor, and now a very good friend. And she encouraged me into looking into getting my board certification. And I kept thinking, small steps, small steps. I don't even know if I'm cut out for this. I've always been so used to my field and the benefits of it. But then I went and I met my first client, and I instantly fell in love. I found not only my tribe, but I found my purpose. ABA chose me. It helped me to learn that my daughter doesn't have a disability. Sure, medically speaking, call it what you want, but at least that's how I see it. I can only hope that others see that ABA is not a terrible service, but it's your tribe. It's your group of people who care about the well-being of your child and your family. We're full of resources and committed to getting you the very best experience out of the services for you. I'll talk more about that in a later episode. Anyway, I hope you guys learned a little bit something about me today. And I'll talk to you all next week. Love you. Bye. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪