Anam Asif

I would definitely go back to my family values. My dad - we grew up learning a lot from my dad about education in general and knowledge in general, where I was constantly motivated to learn and to seek knowledge from every source that I get. I would definitely give credit to my dad about it. Growing up as a child, my dad would, you know, we used to have vocabulary Sundays where me and my siblings used to learn words from my dad that none of the other kids knew. That foundation of constantly seeking knowledge and being motivated to learn has been instrumental in shaping who I am today and the success I've achieved in my field.

I would say it is difficult in the beginning, for sure, because we deal with a lot of challenging clients, and it's not easy to get hold of yourself when there's a lot of overstimulation happening around you, but it's definitely, definitely worth it. It's definitely worth it because every day when you see teeny tiny progresses in the kids, and you see that progression throughout days and it sums up to months, you see little progresses every single day in each kid. Some days we don't see any, but to be able to hold on to that hope that they're gonna have that progress that we are hoping for - I think there's a long way to go in the field. This is a woman-dominated field because women naturally are nurturing and they understand the emotional needs of the client better, I believe. You require immense, immense patience in the field, which I also believe women have. Women play better in those fields where there's a lot of patience and are able to regulate their emotions way better than others, and this is definitely the field for them where they can personally and professionally grow.

In the broader healthcare field, I think research studies on women's health and just considering women's words for how they feel about their health need to be taken more seriously. There's a large gap in the healthcare industry for women's health, even just for medications being tested on women. There's also a huge gap in mental health for the prescriptions being prescribed by doctors, even to kids. I was surprised to know, coming from a very cross-cultural background, when I moved to the States it was very surprising for me to know that middle schoolers get prescribed antidepressants, which is very shocking to me for where I come from because we don't even know what anti-psychiatry medications are until we become adults. I think proper usage of those medications and limiting those medications to a certain age definitely has too much to work on in the mental health industry. In my field of ABA, I feel that there are a lot of things that are common sense that analysts sort of psychopathologize a lot and try finding problems, especially younger analysts and new analysts coming in the field. There's a lot of psychopathological things going on there, but it's just common sense and that's just the personality of a kid. It does suppress the personality of the kid when you try inserting therapy into every single thing that's going on. As for opportunities, I think definitely focusing on the mental health of RBTs, who are basically the backbone of ABA and give therapy to the kids day in and day out. It has one of the highest burnout rates in the field. Giving them more space to work independently is somewhere I could expand, and they have a lot of room to explore. The way you set the tone of the environment affects the therapeutic environment a lot, and a lot of places fail in that regard. This is a very growing field as I've seen - BCBA positions are rising every year. You can become a BCABA if you're at an undergraduate level and a BCBA at a master's level, which I think is an incredible opportunity for younger kids early on if they decide to get into behavioral health. They could simultaneously work as an RBT because it only requires a high school diploma to get a job, so you could really see if that's the field for you.

Integrity, for sure. I think you've got to be honest with wherever you are, whatever you're doing, both in personal and professional life. Along with integrity lies honesty. I believe in honesty a lot in work and personal life. I believe it helps me maintain relationships, interpersonal relationships with everyone. It sort of gives you the leverage, and everyone knows you as a person who is truthful to their work.