Lara Rimassa first encountered the concept of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in 2010 in the midst of obtaining her undergraduate degree in psychology. She studied under the professor Dr. Emily Sandoz who exposed her to ABA and more complex styles of contemporary behaviorism called Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). RFT and ACT provided additional insight into the mechanisms of standard ABA to address not only the standard teachings of equivalence training (e.g., showing a child that using the word "more" equates to them obtaining "more" of the selected item) that is addressed with most of ABA. RFT and ACT show coping strategies that teach each person grace and proactivity through a term coined "psychological flexibility." However, when Lara started her professional career in ABA in 2014, a myriad of companies used a strict Lovass technique that applied Early Intensive Behavior Intervention through Discrete Trial Training (DTT), a technique that oftentimes would need support for generalization to a more natural home or community setting. Therefore, it was important to Lara to ensure her staff use more naturalistic techniques that use Pivotal Response Training, Incidental Training, and Natural Environmental Training along with DTT. 

Additionally, Lara is aware of some of the older procedures of ABA, sometimes known as the "dark side of ABA." Lara did not want to be a part of this dark side, and she searched for different ABA that used compassionate teaching that was fun! Throughout the years, Lara has worked with various companies and insurances that instilled different styles of ABA and she learned that the most effective and quality based ABA is implemented through compassionate, trauma-informed ABA strategies utilizing the Hanley Method of keeping each client happy, relaxed, and engaged (HRE). Lara ensures that all the behavioral professionals do not use any restrictive procedures, harsh punishment techniques, and primarily utilizes reinforcement strategies. If individual clients or parents of children who are diagnosed with autism or a related condition are looking for more disciplinary actions for their kids, the methods of FAST will most likely not be a good fit as evidence based strategies do not show promising results for punishment based strategies such as time outs, physical force, restrictive procedures, or the like. If individual clients or parents of children who are diagnosed with autism or a related condition are looking for a reinforcement based learning that systematically provides exposure to opportunities where skills can be mastered, then you have come to the right place!

For parents with children who have a mental health or behavioral diagnosis, Lara is passionate about caregiver collaboration and mandates active caregiver participation for each of the clients. To ensure your child gets the support they need, we all must be on their behavioral team. Behavioral support is not a magic wand to make all your dreams come true but rather skills that continue to build to have your child move closer to the meaningful life you wish they can reach.

In essence, Lara's approach to ABA prioritizes empathy, collaboration, and ethical practice, aiming to foster meaningful growth and development in her clients. However, there was a missing element to this practice, addressing medically necessary needs.

Throughout the years of working in ABA, Lara noticed that there were long wait times for clients and parents of clients to have their medical, nutritional, and medication needs met. Lara wanted to find a solution to ensure that all clients could obtain efficient and quality care. Thus, a solution was formed to pair with a medical provider.

Lara met Lauren in 2021 and a partnership was formed. Lara was passionate about the behavioral therapy, and Lauren was enthusiastic for medical needs including addressing nutritional needs, medication management, and assessment with diagnosis for psychiatric comorbidities.

Core Principles

Family oriented - we want to provide services keeping family values in the forefront of our mind that address meaningful behaviors that create significant increases in the family’s quality of life. 
 

Authentic - we will provide our truest selves through friendly professionalism. 
 

Synergetic - we pride ourselves with interacting and collaborating among other professionals and with the family to increase efficiency and client success. 
 

Trust - we provide objective, honest services that are reliably built from a foundation of integrity. 

Our promise is to provide quality service delivery with the best intentions in mind. Although we are FAST, our efficiency doesn’t undermine our quality care.