Aiding in Transitions: How Behavior Analysts Can Support Trans Clients #Recorded

Description **This course will provide the participant with 2 General Learning Type BACB® CEUs** Description of Learning Type CE Event: Are you aware that now multiple studies have shown the majority of Autistic adults identify as LGBTQIA , and are up to 7x more likely than neurotypical peers to identify as transgender or be gender non-conforming? Did you know that Strang, et. al (2018) noted Autistic adults with Gender Dysphoria who did not have proper supports were at the highest risk of suicide out of any population experiencing commorbidities in the DSM-5? What are you doing to ensure you are being a force for good and that the humans you are helping are truly affirmed and set up for a quality life? Are you getting trained on social validity for the trans population? If not, why not?? Gender constructs begin to form in childhood, so it’s essential to be prepared to assist kids who are behaving outside of heteronormative expectations. This talk will feature firsthand narratives of lived experience by 2 neurodivergent members of the intersectional trans community, with BCBA input and facilitation to ensure a behavior-analytic presentation. It is unlike any other talk available for BACB CEUs (at least that we know of), and our two guest speakers — Z Agha-Reid & Vonnie Mays — have put together something raw, real, and powerful. About the Instructor: Nicholas Maio-Aether owns Empowered: A Center for Sexuality in St Louis, where he and his occasional teams of partnered Universities’ students work to assist humans with and without disabilities achieve sexual access, sexual freedom, gender affirmation, and self-control of compulsive behaviors. Nicholas works throughout the US training BCBAs/Behavior Analysts so persons in Individualized Supportive Living (ISL) programs gain access to applicable and generalizable comprehensive sex ed and sexual opportunities. Nicholas provides Sexual Behavior Analysis, and has assisted polycules, kinksters, gay couples, trans and nonbinary humans, among others, on their journeys. Trained by GLSEN in 2003, Nicholas started Gay-Straight Alliances across Alaska while in high school, and provided them sex ed materials and trainings. Nicholas spent five years managing Hustler Hollywood in St Louis before moving into Behavior Analysis, and joined AASECT, where he currently sits on two committees. He then completed a Sex Therapy practicum under Linda Weiner, LMSW, CSTS, in 2019 before getting a second Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy, and meeting those hour requirements under Angela Skurtu, LMFT, CST, along with his LGBTQIA Family Systems Specialist certificate in 2021. Target Audience: Any Behavior Analyst or behavior-analytic professional, including RBTs® and BCaBAs®. Event Level: All BCBAs®, BCaBAs®, RBTs®…for CBS Certificate Purposes, this is a Level 2 talk Learning Objectives for Participants: As a result of this course participants will be able to … Operationally define the following terms as they pertain to clinical practice: transgender; transitioning; gender non-conforming; gender dysphoria; gender euphoria; trans spectrum; non-binary; transmasc; transfemme; affirming mental/behavioral healthcare; affirming medical healthcare. Gain exposure to narratives by two neurodivergent persons on the trans spectrum and demonstrate generalization of ABA principles toward their narratives, framing these within a behavior-analytic lens to gain a conceptually systematic understanding of their shared experiences. Discern within the narratives what elements of growing up gender non-conforming were reinforcing/rewarding, and which were punitive/harmful — as well as the environmental and systemic factors that made these impactful, and which behaviors by others (clinicians, educators, family) in their environments these two humans are expressing they found affirming and beneficial. Discern between what is taught as “best practices in ABA” and what neurodiverse trans-identified humans share as their own needs regarding clinician attitude and competencies, applying their advocacy toward self-reflection. Apply the BACB® (2020) Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts to the issues expressed within this discussion