ABA Switzerland

By Charlotte Escané, Claudia Grant, and Federica Cecere

In 2023, our new website was launched, making it easier to become a member and register for our webinars. We also introduced our registry of qualified professionals. Indeed, the goal of ABA Switzerland registry is to highlight professionals with sufficient behavior analytic education and practice. Our registry criteria can be found on our website.
Four webinars were provided during the year. In May, Tyra Sellers held a very informative talk regarding the considerations which we should all be mindful of when providing our services as a supervisor, in order to do so in the most ethical manner possible, whether for the person being supervised or for the client.

In June, Barbara Gross presented different strategies to identify when and how to address sexual behaviors and to seek help. The third webinar was held by Dithu Rajaraman. Dr. Rajaraman presented to us, in an ethical and compassionate way, the Trauma-informed Care in Applied Behavior Analytic Practice and Research. The final webinar was presented by Katrina Roberts about the use of Behavioral Skills Training to Prepare Young Adults with Autism for the Transition to Adulthood.

These interesting and varied webinars allowed ABA Switzerland to provide attractive CEU opportunities for its members and interested people. ABA Switzerland’s goal remains to show the diversity of behavior analysis.

Unfortunately, the ABA masters program project in Geneva has been put on hold. We are looking at other options to host courses in behavior analysis at a university level. Our aim is to offer courses in French, German and in English to begin with. We hope to disseminate behavior analysis not only applied to people with ASD but also to a full range of other professionals and fields.

As in the previous years we continued our work in collaborating with other European countries such as France, Germany and Italy. We submitted our affiliation to EABA.

We have also consulted with influential key opinion leaders of another clinical profession (optometry) that has only been recently accredited in Switzerland, to gain insights into their experience and steps needed. Indeed, the profession of behavior analysts remains unrecognized here in Switzerland. Our clients mostly have to pay for the therapy.

We are currently developing our chapter’s ethics code, guided by the BACB and FSP (Swiss Federation of Psychologists) ones.

In 2024, ABA Switzerland will continue to provide different webinars. In March, Shannon Biagi will present an Introduction to Human Performance Technology for Behavior Analysts. In May, Kate Fiske and Jim Christy will hold a webinar about being a parent of someone with an ASD (“Love and Communication and The Social Impact of Raising a Child with Autism”). Then, in June, Maithri Sivaraman will provide a webinar about telehealth.

We will also translate our webpage in the three of the four different Swiss languages (German, Italian and French) in order to continue to spread behavior analysis in Switzerland. Indeed, we would like to offer information in all official languages to serve more professionals and encourage ethical and professional conduct.