Dara Stoianovici

ABA Supervisor

I am from a beautiful town surrounded by Southern Carpathian mountains in Romania. Growing up, I had the opportunity of traveling and following a family  bucket list of seeing a new country every year. My childhood superheroes were my parents. I observed my mother working with children with disabilities coming from a disadvantaged background. I had the chance to see what an important role a person working in the field can have on a child’s development. From my father, I had the chance to observe many charitable events he organised and see people in need being grateful for the small things.

Since I have always been intrigued by the way human beings think and behave it was very obvious that Applied Behavior Analysis would be the pathway for me. I started working as an ABA therapist in an ABA clinic in Cluj Napoca, where I fell in love with ABA and early intervention.

My further studies include: BSc Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, MSc Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience at Goldsmiths University of London, Postgraduate Certificate in Family and Couple Psychotherapy, Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Psychology and now working on the BCBA training from Florida Institute of Technology. Furthermore, I have received the following training: Registered Behavior Technician course, Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Certificate in Leading Structured Groups (The Association of Psychological Therapies), VB-MAPP course and courses on management and prevention of challenging behaviour (Team Tech, PMVA). They have firmly cemented my desire to achieve my goal of becoming an ABA SUPERvisor and helping all the little ones.

ABA has been an amazing journey. I have conducted therapy, supervised ABA programs and therapists in various settings: ABA clinics, hospitals, respite centres, home settings, nurseries, schools, special needs schools and over Telehealth. My experience has included children with Autism, Patau Syndrome, Edwards Syndrome, ADHD, OCD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Over the years I have worked as an Early Years Teacher, Crisis Counsellor, Psychotherapist in a psychiatric setting and also as a Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care teaching Psychology at a university in London.

In my spare time I love to paint abstract art, attend music festivals, attend ballet and salsa dance classes, visit my family back home with their newspaper and peanut butter businesses. I enjoy hiking, parasailing, scuba diving, snorkelling and have even been known to swim with the sharks…once. You might find me at the seaside walking my beautiful cocker spaniel Maya and my partner (oops, I mean with).