Deconstructing Compassionate ABA: Session 283 with Greg Hanley

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to find a few hours to catch up with many-time guest and all-around podcast fave, Dr. Greg Hanley. We had what turned out to be a lengthy conversation that included the following:

• His recent professional association with Action Behavior Centers.
• Available jobs at Action Behavior Centers.
• The evolution of FTF Behavioral Consulting.
• The term, Compassionate ABA, including some of my misgivings on whether terms like these are necessary.
• The nuanced role of extinction in Skills Based Treatment.
• Distinguishing between the immediate and long-term effects of reinforcement.
• Efficacy vs. effectiveness.
• Some historical perspectives on Functional Analysis, including the unexpected topic in which the term 'automatic reinforcement' was used.
• Questioning the role of descriptive functional assessment.
• Greg's recent thoughts on head-directed self-injury.
• The role of tics in self-injury.
• Skills-based treatment's intersection with constructional approaches to behavioral intervention.

If you think that's a lot, it's just a sample of what we talk about.

Here are the links to what we discussed:

• Session 276 with Dr. Anthony Cammilleri.
• Ghaemmaghami et al. (2024). Toward Compassion in the Assessment and Treatment of Severe Problem Behavior.
• Slaton et al. (2024). Long-term effectiveness and generality of practical functional assessment and skill-based treatment.
• Carr et al. (1976). Stimulus control of self-destructive behavior in a psychotic child.
• Dr. Jessel's ResearchGate page.
• van Haaren (2015). Automatic negative reinforcement: Its possible role in problem behavior with treatment implications.

This podcast is brought to you by:

• ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving (maybe even this episode!), walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests!
• The Behavioral Toolbox. thebehavioraltoolbox.com is a new education and training site that my colleagues Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni and I have been working on for over two years. Check out our latest course, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In as well as the hugely popular When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms.