Not twenty or forty hours a week
Intensive hour counts were designed for a different model with different assumptions. This work is consultative — a handful of hours, not a second full-time job for your child.
Our Approach
Is this ABA?
You deserve a straight answer before you decide anything, so here it is: the individualized work I do with families is behavior analysis. I'd rather tell you that plainly than let you find out later.
But that word carries a lot of history for a lot of families — so what follows is exactly what it means here, and exactly what it doesn't.
The honest version
What this is not
If you've encountered behavior analysis before, this is probably what you encountered. It isn't what happens here.
Not a technician in your living room
No rotating staff, no one delivering a plan they didn't help build. The person who does the assessment is the person who works with your family.
Not built around compliance
The goal is never a child who looks easier to manage. If a plan's success depends on a child suppressing themselves, it isn't a success.
Not treating who your child is as a problem
Stimming, scripting, movement, and AAC are communication and regulation. They are not behaviors to be reduced, and they will not be targeted here.
What it actually is
Behavioral science, pointed at the right problem
The science is genuinely useful. What went wrong historically was what it got aimed at — and who it was designed to serve.
- We look at the situation together. Not just your child — the environment, the demands, the sensory load, the moments things fall apart and the moments they don't.
- We build strategies grounded in behavioral science and in how your family actually lives. A plan that only works in a clinic isn't a plan.
- I teach you to use them. You're the one implementing, by design — because you're the one who's there at 6pm on a Tuesday.
- Assent matters. Your child's "no" is information, not an obstacle to work around.
- We adjust based on what the data actually shows — not on what was supposed to happen.
Why caregiver-mediated, and not direct service?
Because you're the constant. Providers change, school years end, funding shifts. The strategies that survive all of that are the ones the people who love your child already know how to use.
It also means your scholarship or private-pay dollars go considerably further than they would against an agency's hour count.
Credentials & accountability
Who's accountable for this work
Heather Morgan Pile, MS, BCBA — Licensed Behavior Analyst (Virginia), Certified Autism Spectrum Support Coach.
Behavior-analytic services are provided under Board Certified Behavior Analyst certification and governed by the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts. They're available to families in Florida and Virginia, in person in the Tampa Bay area or online.
NeuroNavigate is also an approved Step Up For Students provider under Specialized Services (ABA), Level 1 — the credential tier for a BCBA practicing independently.
Two service lines, always labeled
The individualized work described on this page is clinical. Workshops, courses, classroom resources, and professional trainings are educational rather than clinical — they're available nationally, they aren't behavior-analytic services, and they aren't billable to scholarship funds.
You will always know which one you're receiving.
Questions & Answers
What families ask next
My child had a bad experience with ABA. Why would we try again?
That's a completely reasonable place to start from, and I won't try to talk you out of it. What I'd say is that the thing that hurt was a specific model — intensive, compliance-oriented, delivered to your child rather than with your family. If what you need is help understanding what's happening and strategies you can actually run, that's available without any of that.
And if after a conversation this still isn't what you want, that's a fine outcome. I'd rather you find the right fit than have you here.
Will you try to make my child stop stimming?
No. Stimming is regulation. If a stim is causing physical harm we'd talk about what need it's meeting and what else might meet it, together — but the goal is never to eliminate self-regulation because it looks unusual.
Do you work on masking or "social skills"?
Not in the sense of teaching a child to perform neurotypicality. Self-advocacy, communication that actually gets needs met, and navigating environments that weren't built for you — yes. Suppressing who you are to make others comfortable — no.
Is this therapy?
No. This is not psychotherapy, diagnosis, or medical treatment, and it doesn't replace care from a licensed clinician. If therapy or a diagnostic assessment would serve you better, I'll say so.