In this edition of Motivator Spotlight, we’re excited to share the inspiring journey of Chelsea Burgos, owner of Burgos Behavior. Chelsea has combined a passion for the science of behavior with a commitment to innovative and client-centered practices. From an unexpected start in ABA therapy to creating a practice that breaks away from the traditional medical model, Chelsea demonstrates the power of staying true to your values while embracing flexibility and creativity in clinical work.
1. Can you share your journey in ABA therapy and what inspired you to pursue it?
I stumbled into ABA after burning out while getting my bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice. I answered a job ad about working with kids to help them learn, which ended up being an ABA company. Back then, we were called "tutors," because the RBT certification was not created yet. Over the years, I worked at a community non-profit coordinating services for individuals in the I/DD community. I decided to go back to school, eventually earning my masters in ABA and passing the BCBA exam. I originally fell in love with the science of behavior and looked for a job that was a right fit for me. As my career progressed, I was still in love with the science of behavior, yet had fallen out of love with the industry. The expectations of me as a clinician weren't actually clinical.
2. What's been the most rewarding aspect of your role as a BCBA or clinical owner?
I'm most proud of how we work outside the typical medical model of ABA. We do parent-led ABA and social skills groups and provide consultation services. We don't have tiered services, which allow each of our clinicians to build solid and genuine therapeutic relationships with our clients. I never wanted to be a director where I was managing clinicians and not seeing clients daily. My best days are days filled with sessions.
3. What’s been your biggest win since using Motivity?
Reducing the effort reports take! I've streamlined our report templates to pull everything in from programs. Each section of the report is a program. So we can edit and change anything in the program at any point in the treatment period and have it ready for the report. That way, even if the report template layout changes, we don't have any lost functionality when we create the report.
4. How has Motivity supported your work and your practice?
Motivity is such a flexible platform, which we need because we don't use the standard ABA model. We were with another platform for a year, and it was incredibly challenging to make it meet our needs. I needed to find workarounds for many needs we had that the software wasn't built for. I haven't needed extensive workarounds in Motivity. It's built for customization, which is exactly what we need.
5. Outside of work, what's a hobby or interest you're passionate about and how do you balance it with your professional life?
I love traveling outside of the US and showing my daughter different parts of the world. It's not a passion that fits into my regular routines, but travel has changed my life in the best ways. I don't have hobbies, aside from diving down rabbit holes on YouTube for weeks until I learn everything about a topic before I move on.
6. If you had to pick one thing you love about Motivity, what would it be?
The program builder. It's where the magic happens. The program builder impacts the data collection section and the notes templates, and I've structured my treatment reports to use the program builder almost exclusively.
