Time as a BCBA: 6 years
Time at AnswersNow: 10 months
Location: Orlando, FL

Introduction

Chandler Pelfrey has worked in ABA for 12 years, six of them as a BCBA, mostly in homes and communities. He also spent time in clinics alongside RBTs, but that model never resonated with him.

“If a child isn't using their words in the home and they're showing challenging behaviors as a result in the home, they clearly have a communication problem in the home,” Chandler says. “So why would we ship them off to a clinic to teach them skills there instead of just fixing the problem at home?”

Working through RBTs added another layer to that challenge. "Working with RBTs, you are tasked with making decisions with fewer opportunities to contact the relevant subject matter," he says. "It's easier to make clinical decisions when you're the one delivering a hundred percent of the hours, because you know what's going on."

Finding a Lifeline at AnswersNow

Chandler happened upon AnswersNow when a recruiter reached out to him, and he was immediately drawn to the BCBA-direct care model.

"AnswersNow being BCBA-only was a lifeline to me," Chandler says. "I can still do things that I am aligned with clinically, that I'm used to, that I like, that I think provide meaningful progress, and I can do it in a more flexible fashion."

How Chandler Works with Families

Chandler's approach to working with kids and parents is deeply personalized, built around each family's own strengths rather than solely their challenges. "Everyone has strengths, and everybody has interests," he says. "We start from a place of identifying what makes a kiddo great and what makes a family a good support system, and go from there."

He particularly appreciates the flexibility of AnswersNow's telehealth model, including being able to offer nighttime sessions that fit naturally into families' evening routines and makes care more accessible for working parents. He also praised the AnswersNow technology portal for its functionality, sharing that it makes it incredibly easy to meet with patients virtually and deliver care without friction.

Chandler’s Favorite Family Success Story

One of Chandler's favorite family success stories is one where he'd been coaching a caregiver away from what's sometimes called managing by exception — waiting for a big problem and then responding with punishment or taken-away privileges — and toward proactively reinforcing the behaviors they actually wanted to see.

The shift showed up in how the caregiver talked about their child. Early sessions often opened with something like, "They lost this privilege because of X." Months later, that same caregiver came to a session excited to share that their child had taken a deep breath and counted to ten instead of acting out, and that she'd told them how proud she was and pointed out everything they'd earned because of it. "That always makes me happy," Chandler says. "From negative punishment to positive methods of engaging the children."

Chandler’s Favorite Aspects of Working at AnswersNow

One of Chandler's favorite parts about working at AnswersNow is the clinical community, especially the support new BCBAs get when they join the organization. New BCBAs are paired with a more experienced clinician during their first week, and Chandler was matched with Mary Davis, who sent him a full list of games and activities to help him feel more comfortable running engaging sessions over telehealth. "My biggest concerns early on were regarding how to be fun and engaging in a telehealth model," he says, "and it was awesome being given the tools to succeed."

Chandler also values the clinical autonomy that comes with the role: the freedom to implement ABA in the way he believes actually benefits families, arming them with skills and new positive experiences rather than following a rigid, one-size-fits-all process.

Looking Ahead

Chandler loves what he's doing, wants to keep doing it, and is grateful for the chance to deliver high-quality, BCBA-direct care at AnswersNow. As he looks ahead, that's really all it comes down to for him: "I'm just going to keep trying to deliver the best services and fulfill my obligations to everybody."