Reply To: Where do I begin?

[Alicia Beaudoin]

Hi Chrystal! My name is Alicia and I am in the same boat as you. I’m a BCBA working doing EIBI in autism as well, looking to switch my career focus to Health and Fitness. I recently enrolled in a PhD program for Health Psychology at Northcentral University, and so far I feel this has been a good direction for me to go in as I am interested in conducting research and perhaps even teaching ABA or Health Psychology at a college level. Also, I didn’t have any professional background in health, so I felt this was a good way to get some education on the subject. But I would also like to be a personal health coach, working one-on-one with individuals looking to meet their own health goals. There are a few programs out there that offer a health coach certification, this website was actually helpful for me as a basic starting point: https://www.nutritioned.org/health-coach.html

I’ve also searched on Linked In, and I have found a few Health Coaches out there with ABA backgrounds, I’m trying to arrange a brief interview with one or all of them. Finally, I plan to attend the upcoming ABAI convention in May in San Diego, CA, as the HSF SIG tries to promote HSF-related topics at the convention. I’d love to connect with you, so that perhaps we can keep in touch and share in each other’s career-change journey. Feel free to contact me using any of the following:

My Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-beaudoin-109064109/
Email: abeaudoin123@gmail.com

I’d also love to hear from you if you have found any resources that are helpful! Also, it has been a while since you last posted, how are things going for you? Thanks so much for sharing, and hopefully we can connect soon!