Kaitlyn Hodge

I've been in the mental health field for about 5 years, and for the past 3 years, I've been working specifically with kids as a registered behavioral technician. I implement ABA therapy to children on the autism spectrum, mostly working with the little ones. My day-to-day involves teaching kids emotional regulation, helping with potty training and eating habits, working with children who are struggling to learn verbal communication, and teaching them colors, matching, and letters. For kids with self-injurious behaviors, I help teach communication patterns so it doesn't escalate to that behavior. Before this role, I worked more on the clinical end of mental health as a peer mentor. I also served on the board of a startup nonprofit for community wellness, where I helped connect people with resources, especially LGBT-friendly ones, because I'm LGBT myself and I know how hard it is to find those resources and connections. I hosted a lot of grounding events centered around the LGBT community, and my favorite was an event I started called Color Me Queer, which had an amazing turnout and really helped people with community, coming out, and just forgetting the seriousness of the world and building a really safe place for the LGBT community in terms of mental health. I would teach mental health recovery to prevent burnout and also helped with the nonprofit's website. I'm currently working on my third degree, getting my master's in behavioral analyst, which I'll finish next year.