The journey toward becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) is one of passion, rigorous study, and, crucially, a demanding practicum experience. This supervised fieldwork is meant to be a period of rapid skill growth, where you transform and transition from theory to practice under supportive supervision and mentorship.
But let’s be honest: for many, the reality can feel vastly different. With a reality check in place, sometimes we see that this period of rapid growth doesn’t always feel supportive, in fact, it can feel stressful, frustrating, and isolating. If you’re feeling any of these, just know, you’re not alone.
The BCBA community is built on principles of support and ethical practice, and that should start from day one of your supervised fieldwork experience. If you’re pushing through a practicum placement that leaves you feeling drained instead of inspired, or if you feel like just an extra pair of hands rather than a developing clinician, it’s a failure of the system, not a reflection of your potential. So let’s talk about how to get the best out of your practicum experience so you can truly live up to your potential.
It’s Not Just You
The culture of “paying your dues” can be pervasive in any field, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of your professional well-being. A great practicum should offer:
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- Constructive Feedback: Specific, actionable guidance that helps you improve, not just criticism.
- Accessible Supervision: Your supervisor should be available and actively involved in your professional development.
- Varied Experience: Opportunities to practice diverse skills, from assessment to intervention and consultation.
- A Feeling of Belonging: A sense that you are a valued, contributing member of the team.
- A Connection to Your Values: A golden thread that partners your daily experience with what you truly care about in this field.
If you’re missing these, it’s understandable to feel discouraged, but this situation will present you with one of the best opportunities for growth you may have; an opportunity to empower yourself and advocate for your needs in a professional way.
Remember, the challenges you face now are temporary, and they do not define the BCBA you will become and in fact, they can make you better when you face them head on.
Own Your Experience
While you can’t instantly change your workplace or practicum culture, you can take steps to build and create the experience you want and need.
Ways to Build Your Community
An important part of becoming a successful BCBA is about learning to stay committed to your goals and values, even when times are tough. Cultivating a strong connection with your supervisors, peers, and others in the field can help you feel and be in connection with those goals and values.
- Communicate Directly with Your Supervisors:
- Set up a time to have a transparent conversation about your struggles with any or all of your supervisors.
- Action: Reach out (and follow up when needed) to schedule a meeting; come prepared with a list of the issues you are facing and your thoughts on solutions.
Be parsimonious– most often, the easiest answer to your problem is just to talk it out and come up with a game plan with your team. Also, if needed, you can always access your supervisor’s supervisor for more support.
- Seek an Accountability Partner:
- Connect with classmates from your university program who are also completing their practicum hours.
- Action: Host a weekly check-in call to discuss case design, practice BCBA exam questions, or simply vent and validate each other’s struggles.
Just knowing someone else is going through a similar challenge can make all the difference.
- Leverage Your University Resources:
- Your program faculty are your allies. Utilize them as needed to assist in any difficulties you may be facing.
- Action: Schedule time with your program director or a favorite professor.
Professors are there to offer guidance, help you mediate education issues, or even suggest external mentors who align more closely with your professional goals.
- Join Professional Online Communities:
- The digital world is full of BCBA and student-focused forums and groups.
- Action: Participate in professional groups on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or other platforms.
These communities can be excellent for asking general experience-related questions, getting advice, and finding encouragement from peers who have been in your exact position.
- Set Firm Boundaries:
- If your practicum is consuming all your time and energy, it’s time to protect your well-being.
- Action: Commit to a time each day or week where you close your laptop, turn off notifications, and engage in activities that recharge you.
A burned-out future BCBA helps no one.
Learn from the Non-Example
Every negative experience in your practicum can be reframed as a crucial learning opportunity: a “non-example” that supports a better understanding of effective and ethical practice. The best education often comes not from seeing what to do, but from clearly seeing what not to do. A great future BCBA will take challenges as times to slow down, reflect, and come back with a plan for the better.
- Define Your Non-Negotiables:
- Identify experiences that do not align with your goals, values, and preferences, in order to learn more about what you want to be as a BCBA.
- Action: If you experience any of these non-prefered situations, take the time to document your feelings and identify any opposite behaviors that you can engage in as a future BCBA.
This simple action turns frustration into your future ethical compass.
- Clarify Ethical Obligations:
- If you observe practices that feel questionable or unethical, use the BCBA Ethics Code to analyze the situation.
- Action: Consistently review and remain knowledgeable of the Ethics Code and how it can be used to support your ethical decision making.
Your current environment is giving you real-world scenarios to study and learn from—not for replication, but for critique and correction.
- Check in with Your Values:
- Spend time reflecting on what you are doing to stay connected with what you care about most in the pursuit of becoming a BCBA.
- Action: At the end of everyday, reflect on why you are doing what you are doing and how it is helping you achieve alignment with your values.
When we stay connected with our values, tough times might not feel so tough.
- Establish Your Experience Style:
- If you are currently feeling just like an “extra pair of hands rather than a developing clinician,” use this moment to define the type of supervisor you will be.
- Action: Commit to providing varied experiences and active, intentional involvement to your own future supervisees.
The failures of the system you’re facing today become the motivation for the supportive system you will build tomorrow.
Your journey through practicum and fieldwork may include some tough lessons, but these will provide you with countless opportunities to empower and define yourself and your future as a BCBA.
By actively owning your experience, building community, advocating for your needs, and setting firm boundaries, you are protecting your professional well-being and ensuring you survive and thrive until certification. More critically, by engaging with the “non-examples,” you are transforming every negative encounter into your future ethical compass, clarifying your non-negotiables, and deliberately establishing yourself as the supportive supervisor you are destined to be.
Extend the dedication you have for achieving better client outcomes to yourself. The challenges you may face are temporary, but the resilient, empathetic, and ethically minded BCBA you are forging in this process will be permanent. When you finally earn those initials, you will be the necessary change, committed to building up the next generation of clinicians.
Keep going. You’re closer than you think.
