Etana Berger has spent 15 years working in behavior change and 12 years as a BCBA.
But today, her clients look a little different.
They have four legs.
Etana is building a business in animal behavior, applying many of the same principles of behavior change she has spent her career studying and practicing to help animals and the people who care for them.
And her path there was anything but linear.
“There’s Got to Be More to This”
Etana’s career began in service coordination, where she was first introduced to individuals with autism and ABA.
“I had been a supervising BCBA for 12 years, and I moved to a small clinic in Maryland and was basically helping them build it.”
But Etana kept thinking:
“There’s got to be more to this.”
At the time, she thought the answer was another degree.
“I thought, I’ve got to go for my doctorate because I think that’s the only thing that’s going to open up more doors for me.”
Today, she sees that differently.
“I don’t think that’s true anymore. I just think that at the time that’s what I thought.”
Seeing Behavior Analysis Differently
Etana completed her PhD in 2020.
And something important happened during the program.
She was exposed to applications of behavior analysis outside of autism.
“They really did try to kind of broaden your horizons a bit. So we learned about OBM. We learned about some of the applications outside of autism.”
That exposure eventually led her into health and wellness.
It was a natural fit.
Etana already had a background in clinical psychology and a personal interest in fitness, exercise, yoga, and meditation.
She eventually worked for a health and wellness company, first as a goal specialist and later managing a team of health coaches.
The work wasn’t labeled ABA.
But Etana could see behavior analysis everywhere.
“ABA was definitely in there. You’re talking stimulus control procedures and DRAs and DRIs all around exercise and eating habits.”
It was one of her first opportunities to see just how transferable her skills really were.
The Loss That Changed Her Direction
Animals had always been part of Etana’s life.
“My family’s always been an animal family. I mean, my sister’s an emergency veterinarian. We’ve had animals growing up all the time.”
Even while she was in college and graduate school, she volunteered at an animal shelter.
“It’s always been a primary component of my life.”
Then, in 2021, one of Etana’s dogs passed away.
That loss became a turning point.
“I think that was the catalyst for me to say it’s just time.”
She had spent years loving animals without knowing exactly how that passion could fit into the career she had already built.
“I’ve always loved animals. I’ve always wanted to be involved with animals. I just never knew the way in.”
The Science Was Bigger Than One Population
One of the things Etana feels strongly about is how behavior analysts are educated.
Many ABA programs reside within special education departments rather than psychology departments.
For Etana, that matters.
“Behavior change is psychology. It is 100% intertwined in everything we do with the mind.”
She believes separating behavior analysis from the broader psychology community can inadvertently narrow how future behavior analysts see the science.
“I think in a lot of ways we’re doing ourselves a disservice by doing that.”
She points out that behaviorism is introduced in introductory psychology courses.
“In every Psych 101 course and in every textbook, you’ve got classical and operant conditioning.”
Yet many behavior analysts progress through their education with relatively little exposure to applications beyond developmental disabilities.
“I think it’s making us an island away from the rest of the psych community.”
For Etana, expanding beyond autism meant reconnecting with something fundamental:
Behavior analysis is a science of behavior.
Not a population.
Starting Over in a New Field
Etana knew behavior analysis.
But she also knew that entering animal behavior meant respecting the people who had already spent their careers doing that work.
“Nobody really cares that you’re a BCBA.”
That realization required some humility.
“In the BCBA world, I think we’re held in such high regard, which is amazing, but in the rest of the world, nobody knows what that means.”
She couldn’t simply walk into another profession and assume her BCBA credential automatically made her an expert in animal behavior.
“When you’re moving into a different field, you have to get a little bit humble in a way.”
Instead, she started learning.
“You have to understand that these people have been here and practicing for a long time and they know what they’re talking about.”
Etana sought out professionals using approaches that aligned with her values.
She learned about positive reinforcement trainers like Pat Miller.
She brought technicians to meet Miller so they could see another way of approaching animal training.
“There was a different way to do this. There was a better way to do this where we weren’t destroying rapport and trust with these animals, where we weren’t using pain as a way to teach.”
“It’s important to remember that even though we know this science well we need to understand the clients we are working with. It’s vital to learn about things like developmental milestones, innate behaviors, body language and more about these animals. We know the behavior science but it’s vital to learn about who you are working with and know them well.”
Then Etana kept going.
She researched.
She connected with trainers.
She enrolled in additional education specifically related to dog training.
And she accepted that expertise in one field didn’t mean she could skip the learning process in another.
“I kind of took a step back and I realized I’m going to have to start from the beginning and I’m going to have to get the experience.”
That willingness ultimately opened doors.
“That led me to networking and connecting with people.”
Those relationships eventually helped Etana secure her first position in the animal behavior world.
Building Her Own Animal Behavior Business
Today, Etana has opened her own private company and is growing her caseload.
“It’s slow growing.”
Part of that comes with building something unfamiliar in a rural community.
She isn’t only marketing a service.
She’s educating potential clients about why her approach is different.
“Training is very unregulated. If you wanted to tomorrow you could hang out a shingle and say you’re a trainer and no one’s going to contest it.”
That makes education even more important.
“It’s really up to you as the person to set standards and get that education.”
Etana provides both virtual and in-person services.
And interestingly, virtual services can sometimes be particularly helpful with animals.
“Sometimes with animals, it’s actually better in a way because if we have a dog that reacts to strangers or cats, for example, who don’t like people coming in the home and might hide, then that video works really well so we can keep the animals nice and calm.”
Other situations benefit from working directly in the animal’s natural environment.
That allows Etana to model strategies with the animal and work directly in the environment where challenges are occurring.
Different population.
Same science.
How Do You Explain a BCBA Outside of ABA?
Etana does include her BCBA credential on her business materials.
But she doesn’t expect pet owners to understand what those four letters mean.
“Whether or not that credential means anything, I don’t know.”
Instead, she talks about what the credential represents.
Experience.
Science.
Research.
“The training that I do is going to come from scientifically proven methodologies. It’s going to come from things that have been empirically supported and tested and we know are effective for behavior change.”
She also explains that this isn’t a brand-new way of thinking for her.
“These are the same strategies I’ve used for 15 years in human behavior change.”
For Etana, the goal isn’t convincing someone that “BCBA” should matter to them.
It’s helping them understand why her experience can help solve their problem.
“Networking Is Essential”
When Etana talks about building her business and entering an entirely different professional space, one theme comes up repeatedly.
Networking.
“Networking is essential. It’s not an option. I don’t think it’s an option for anybody anymore.”
And she doesn’t believe that only applies to entrepreneurs.
“Even if you’re looking for a job at a company versus building your own company, networking is absolutely essential.”
For Etana, relationships have opened opportunities that credentials alone could not.
“It is the one thing that will get you the interview. It’s the one thing that will bypass other things that are keeping you out. And it’s the one thing that’s going to open opportunity.
“I’ve reached out to other positive reinforcement trainers who have started their businesses and are thriving and just kind of was like, am I doing this right or what do I do next?”
Little by little, those conversations helped her figure it out.
“You talk to enough people and you get enough pieces to kind of start putting things together.”
Creating the Path She Couldn’t Find
Etana had to work hard to figure out how a BCBA could move into animal behavior.
“That was such a hard thing for me to find.”
“There’s no path.”
So now, she’s beginning to create one.
Etana has started offering workshops explaining the education and potential pathway into animal behavior for other behavior analysts who are curious about the field.
“I actually started a workshop series in my business that talks a little bit more about what is the education, what is the pathway in.”
Eventually, she wants to go even further.
“Ultimately I would love to grow the business large enough that I can offer mentorship so that people could come and join in on a session and see what it looks like or we could talk about a case and do a case analysis.”
Because Etana doesn’t believe this knowledge should be guarded.
“Sometimes there’s just so much gatekeeping and I don’t know why. There’s enough people and enough animals and enough everything to try to fix that. We don’t need less people.”
“I Want to Live Every Day Like I’m Retired”
Etana’s decision to build a different career wasn’t only about animals.
It was also about the life she wanted her career to make possible.
Years ago, she remembers driving long distances between sessions and becoming so focused on work that she ignored what was happening with her own body.
“I had been so focused on just trying to get to my sessions and trying to do my work that I ignored everything.”
“That to me was one of those defining moments.”
She was spending hours driving from one responsibility to another.
And eventually she realized:
“I need to live a better quality life than this. I just have to. I don’t want to wait till I’m retired because I don’t know if I’m going to make it to retirement.”
So she came up with a different goal.
“I want to live every day like I’m retired.”
Not by never working.
By building a life where work fits alongside everything else she values.
“I want to live every day in a way that’s so balanced that I feel like I am almost retired. I want to wake up in the morning and have a hot breakfast and then not have to jump in the car right away.
“It’s like the stupid silly small things, but they’re significant.”
Going Independent
Etana’s story is one of the clearest examples I’ve encountered of just how far a background in behavior analysis can take you.
She has worked in autism services.
Clinical leadership.
Supervision.
Health and wellness.
Research.
Teaching.
And now animal behavior.
She didn’t stop being a behavior analyst when she began working with animals.
She expanded where she applied the science.
And she was willing to become a learner again in order to do it responsibly.
That distinction matters.
Going beyond traditional ABA isn’t about assuming our credential automatically qualifies us to work in every field.
It’s about recognizing the skills we have, respecting the expertise that already exists in another field, getting the additional education and experience we need, and finding where those worlds intersect.
Etana found that intersection between behavior analysis, psychology, and something she had loved for most of her life.
Animals.
And now she is building not only a business around it, but potentially a clearer path for other behavior analysts who want to follow.
Her story is a reminder that there may be far more options available to BCBAs than we realize.
Sometimes we just haven’t been shown them yet.
As Etana put it:
“You should be enjoying your life while you’re doing the things you’re passionate about.”
Want to explore what’s possible?
If stories like Etana’s make you realize there are more ways to use your BCBA than you ever imagined, you’re exactly who I created the Going Independent Community for.
Inside, independent BCBAs from across the country are sharing what they’re building, what’s working, and how they’re creating careers that look completely different from one another.
Because there isn’t one path to independence anymore.
There are many.
Join the Community Here: Link