I feel very lucky to have a job that I love. Yes, there can be some tough times, and there can be frustrating bureaucracy to deal with, but being able to support clients and their families and friends to help increase their quality of life and independence is what I love.
What I also love is sharing what we're doing with others. The service delivery, education and support for parents, carers, teachers, aides, and other people in our clients' lives... It's not always an easy job - we have to help the people in our clients' lives figure out the best way to support the client, but there are usually other variables that affect this - time, other kids/students, energy etc.!
Service models are constantly evolving. This is a good thing because it means constant change and room to improve.
During supervision for my BCBA, my supervisor basically pushed me (in a very good way!) into presenting a poster at a conference. I was travelling to the annual ABAI convention in Chicago, and she said, "Well, you're going all that way, so you may as well share something!"
It scared the crap out of me - it still does - but it was such a good experience, and when I shared the difficulties I faced, the constraints, the variables I couldn't really control, as well as the positive outcomes and what we were able to achieve, it really made me feel more confident in my work, and model.
I think I have been able to shape and change the delivery of services after each bit of research I have presented. This is service delivery-focused research - showing what we did, on a very basic, practical level, out there in the real world, and I think we need more of that.
More clinicians and practitioners should say, "You know what, it wasn't a perfect laboratory set-up, but this is what we found, and this is what we're going to do next" (Let the data guide you!)
Get in touch for queries about supervision, and you never know; you might submit an abstract for a conference based on your current work!