Time as a BCBA: 7 years
Time at AnswersNow: Since June 2025
Location: Florida

Introduction

Darian Rivera, MEd, BCBA, LBA, has spent over nine years in the field of ABA, having worked as a behavior therapist, an RBT, a BCaBA, and now as a BCBA. She’s worked across community, school, home, clinic, and group home settings, in person and via telehealth, with clients ages 2 to 17.

As a self-described interdisciplinarian, Darian has picked up a wide range of clinical experience across settings and companies. But it wasn't until she joined AnswersNow that she found a model that truly empowers her to deliver the kind of direct, hands-on care that she's always wanted to provide for kids and families.

Darian’s Favorite Parts of Working at AnswersNow

• The BCBA-direct care model. Darian works hands-on with clients and caregivers herself, rather than supervising RBTs and hearing about progress secondhand.
• Integrating ACT into her therapy sessions. Darian calls this the most fulfilling part of her role, and says AnswersNow has given her more opportunity to do it than anywhere else she's worked.
• A schedule that fits her life. As a parent to a toddler, Darian appreciates that AnswersNow enables her to maintain a consistent, steady caseload in the evenings while also giving her the flexibility to take care of her kid during the daytime. 

Darian’s Path to Becoming a BCBA

Darian started college pursuing an education degree. A serendipitous class project pairing her one-on-one with a student showed her the impact of individualized, data-driven support, and made her question whether a traditional classroom, teaching many students at once, was the right fit for her.

Around the same time, while working at a daycare preschool, a coworker suggested she look into ABA. A family member's own struggles with communication brought the field even closer to home. The threads came together, and she's spent the years since building a career as a behavior therapist, RBT, and now BCBA, across nearly every care setting.

Why Darian Loves AnswersNow’s BCBA-Direct Care Model 

While Darian has worked in the field of ABA for many years, she didn’t feel like she found her professional home until AnswersNow. For Darian, it was AnswersNow's BCBA-direct model that set the company apart for her. "The BCBA-direct model is the thing that really pulled me in, and I think sets AnswersNow apart from a lot of other models," she says. "I love it so much because I'm able to be so involved in what's important for the clients and for the caregivers, and I get to do it directly."

In her prior work environments, Darian was often tasked with supervising an RBT delivering services, which made her feel distant from the care experience the families received. AnswersNow is her first chosen telehealth model, and being the one working hands-on with the client and family — rather than supervising from a distance — allows her to experience firsthand the impact of her care on the families she serves.

Having worked within in-person clinic settings, Darian also noticed a persistent gap in her work: clients built meaningful skills in session, but there was little  opportunity to show parents how to carry those skills home and out in the community. At AnswersNow, parents are present for every part of the process, whether it’s treatment planning, implementation, reinforcement, or skill generalization. "Everybody's on the same page," she says, and due to the Focused Care model, "the goals are really close-knit. Everything ties together, and everything's there for a reason."

How Darian Uses AI to Personalize Therapy for Her Clients

One of the most helpful tools Darian uses in her virtual therapy sessions is AI. She keeps a stock of tried-and-true toys on hand to engage clients, but has found that AI-generated images and activities have an incredible ability to pull clients in. One of her younger clients loves specific TV characters and sports mascots, so during sessions, they will open an image generator together in Google Slides, and he practices detailed, descriptive language telling her exactly what he wants to see. The result is a custom image built entirely around his interests, like two of his favorite sports teams combined into one logo.

With older clients, the same instinct turns ideas into instant activities: a coping skills bingo board built in 30 seconds with Google Gemini's Canvas tool, or a hurricane trivia game built together as a simple browser-based activity. "I'm able to access reinforcers quicker than I ever have, and they're tailored to the clients way more than they've ever been," she says. "I don't have to ask for budget to order a specific toy off Amazon and wait for it to ship. I get to do it right here, right now."

Darian's Favorite Family Impact Story

Darian recalls working closely with one client on ACT, particularly a technique called defusion — creating space between a thought and the belief that the thought is true. This client often got stuck on thoughts like "nobody likes me" or "I'm so different." Together, they built a visual tool she calls the Thought Canvas: he inputs the stuck thought, and it's turned into a silly image, reinforcing the idea that thoughts are just words rather than absolute facts.

The tool stuck. After a tough day at school, the client told his mom he'd used the Thought Canvas Strategy in the middle of class by visualizing the thought as a car on a racetrack and said it helped him stay focused and get through his day without getting upset. "That's what's so rewarding to me," Darian says, "being able to use my expertise directly, and see that impact with him."

Why Darian Loves Working at AnswersNow

For Darian, what makes her work at AnswersNow most meaningful goes beyond any single tool or technique — it's knowing which families AnswersNow is able to reach. She recalls meeting a family who was placed on a waitlist that was two and a half years long for in-person ABA in a rural town, and how excited they were to finally get started with care. 

"To be able to get families staffed as quickly as we can, and make such a direct impact in a shorter amount of time, there's less burnout for the clients and families," she says. "It’s been amazing working here, and I really am passionate about AnswersNow's mission."