My Journey with Behavior Frontiers - Carrine Pilkington, Regional Clinical Director

My journey with Behavior Frontiers began in the beginning -- I think I was the company’s third employee and I was staffed on one of our first clients.

I had just graduated with my BA in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, and was about to begin a master’s program in Educational Psychology with the Marriage and Family Therapy Option. I was hired as a Behavior Therapist (now called Behavior Technician) and trained directly under the owner, Helen Mader. We actually did the initial training and role-plays in the living room of her apartment! I think our stimuli were a stapler, banana, and car keys – but hey, we made it work!

Working as a BT while in school was great. I was able to schedule my classes around work and used gaps in between clients as homework and study time. It was an excellent combination for me. I was lucky to work on a variety of cases in schools and homes. I grew in experience and was promoted to a Senior Behavior Therapist. I continued my journey through school, fieldwork for my masters, and therapy sessions with my clients. When I graduated with my Masters, I was promoted to a Case Manager position and I began earning internship hours for my MFT licensure requirements. It was at that point that Helen encouraged me to go back to school to take the additional coursework requirements for the BCBA exam, which I did, and I eventually gained the hours that the BCBA requires. During that time, I learned all about programming, curriculum development and behavior strategies. And, I gained a wealth of information on how to develop, apply, and teach ABA methods to help service clients.

In 2009 I passed the BCBA exam and was promoted to a Behavior Supervisor, where a continued to develop my skills as a clinician. In 2012/2013 I left Behavior Frontiers to gain some other experience, but I soon realized that ABA was what I was passionate about and that working at Behavior Frontiers was truly where I was meant to be. I love the support, the mission, and the strive for quality that is in the hearts and minds of Behavior Frontiers. I came back to Behavior Frontiers as a Clinical Director in Los Angeles, and later when I returned from maternity leave in 2015, I was charged with opening our Orange County office. That same year I also sat for and passed my MFT exam.

Next, I regionalized to Orange County, then launched our Riverside region. I moved from Long Beach to the Inland Empire and opened our San Diego region. Along the way I was promoted to Senior Clinical Director and then to Regional Clinical Director. During this time, I helped develop the different positions and continued to support our staff and the clients we serve.

I am so beyond proud of Behavior Frontiers: How we have grown and all the clients and families we support across the nation. Something that started in an apartment in southern California now reaches across many states. It really does amaze me how passionate we all are and how dedicated Behavior Frontiers is to its staff and employees. As part of the Quality Improvement Committee, we continue to develop improvement goals each year based directly on employee feedback. I enjoy being part of what makes Behavior Frontiers an amazing place to work. For me, Behavior Frontiers is truly a piece of me, and I am always so grateful to everyone for letting me be one of the leaders in the organization.

Carrine Pilkington, M.S., BCBA, LMFT, LBA
Regional Clinical Director
Tuesday, January 14, 2020