Lit Up
with Iveth Aguilar
Behavior Bites Podcast - Ep46August 14, 2024Is burnout just a buzzword?
Is there such a thing as work-life balance?
During today’s meal— I speak with a passionate behavior analyst and burnout coach about the importance of antecedent strategies to process big emotions, how to empower BCBAs, and listening to our bodies.
-
Amuse-Bouche
Can you talk about rage rituals and dancing as an antecedent strategy to manage stress?
Appetizer
How did you get into Behavior Analysis?
What led you to becoming a burnout coach?
Palate Cleanser
Describe your best meal during your travels in South East Asia
Did you eat anything adventurous?
Entree
When was a time you failed, and what did you learn from that experience?
What advice would you give a burnout client who is waiting for their company to change?
Dessert
How do you practice self-care and balance life/work?
What is your favorite thing about what you do?
Excerpts from the Episode
(*Paraphrased highlights)-
Oftentimes, we just go through the day, and we are exposed to all of these stimuli in our environment. Sometimes they create a stress response within our bodies.
We're often so busy that we don't even recognize when our body is in stress until we're already super stressed— snapping at our partner, maybe making rash decisions, or cussing someone out on the freeway.
We need a way to release that stress from our bodies, and a really good way is dance, and specifically rage rituals. When I think of a rage ritual, you're dancing a little bit more intensely.
One of my favorite songs to listen to is The Kill by 30 Seconds To Mars. That's my go-to rage ritual song. I will play that and just move in a way where I'm just shaking, and it's almost like I'm shaking out this excess cortisol that's living in my body.
I get to just rage out about whatever upset me throughout the day. I get to validate my feelings. I get to give them a space to be felt. Then I can release them, so that I can go back to being my normal happy self.
-
My own burnout. I was so burnt out last year. I got to a point where I didn’t even want to be in the field anymore.
My partner and I both quit our jobs to travel the world because that was something that was on my bucket list. What I found was that I was on the beach in Bali and I was still feeling burnt out. I was like, what is wrong with me? I left my job, we're all good. I should be good.
That's when I started really questioning, how long does it take to heal burn out? Why am I still burnt out? Why am I still stressed? Why do I still have this constant need to be productive?
I really went down the rabbit hole. I started looking into somatic work, which was honestly the solution for me overcoming my burnout. I loved it so much that I was like, I want to help other BCBAs overcome this.
-
My favorite thing about what I do is I get to empower women to have a say over their life.
My clients come to me because they're burnt out. Oftentimes we get to this point where we start talking about limiting beliefs. It goes back to maybe things they were told that they couldn't do because they're a woman or because they look a certain way.
Helping them heal that part of themselves and creating a lot more confidence and self love is my favorite thing, because I’ve had to work really hard on that.
In the last year, I feel like part of my burnout journey was getting to a place where I could feel confident in that. In setting boundaries, not just saying no, but asking for what I want.
That was really hard for me because I never felt worthy. I always felt that if I had an opinion on something or if I wanted things a certain way, that I was just being too much or it wasn't my place to ask for that.
So that's my favorite thing, being able to empower women to feel worthy and to feel confident and seeing what they do with that confidence.
ABOUT Iveth
Iveth Aguilar, MS, BCBA, Burnout Recovery and Prevention Coach
Iveth (she/her) is a dedicated and innovative Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Burnout Coach, and speaker who specializes in helping behavior analysts achieve work-life balance. Iveth has been in the ABA field since 2018 and earned her BCBA certification in 2020.
After experiencing her own burnout as a BCBA, Iveth founded Empowered Behavior Coaching and created the "From Burnt-Out to Lit Up" program, a 4-month coaching experience for burnt-out behavior analysts. Her approach goes deep to uncover the fears behind perfectionism, overcommitting, and lack of boundary-setting behaviors that often lead to burnout. With training in somatic work, she integrates nervous system regulation through movement into her practice to address stress.
In addition to coaching, Iveth leads Empowered Behavior Women, a free community for BCBAs and aspiring BCBAs focused on connection, well-being, and exploring alternative ABA career paths. She also provides burnout prevention and recovery workshops for ABA companies to ensure they are making efforts to prevent burnout organization-wide.
Iveth’s mission is to empower behavior analysts to overcome burnout, merge their unique passions with ABA, and find work environments that light them up!
CONNECT with Iveth
Instagram: @empoweredbehavioranalyst
Website: empoweredbehaviorcoaching.comPlease support our podcast by leaving a rating or review!
(When on Apple Podcasts, scroll down the episodes to find the review area.)
Visit my Podcast page to learn more about Behavior Bites!
