Testimonials

It is my mission to protect and serve youth who struggle within traditional expectations.

Mother of a son, with ASD and a PDA profile, experiencing neurodivergent burnout:

About a year into my son's neurodivergent burnout, we found Aram. Our child could not leave the house without panicking, making in-person therapies inaccessible. Our son had interests that we as parents tried to foster but we could not always engage with the intensity that he required. The combination of a person who could meet our son where he was (at home in burnout) and have the ability/knowledge to engage in our son' interests while simultaneously reading the subtle cues he gives to indicate dysregulation seemed an impossible goal. In stepped Aram. Aram honors my son's pace and shows him that he can have a learning experience without being pushed past his comfort/ability level. Whatever my son brings up as an interest during a session, Aram makes it happen in a collaborative, no pressure way. For example, my son wanted to create a mask for one of his imagined characters. My son can easily talk about his ideas, but executive functioning skills like making a concept drawing or list are not in his current skillset. Aram scaffolded the skill, drawing the idea as my son spoke, to create a concept drawing for the project. Together, they constructed the mask and Aram was able to introduce a few new building techniques as they created, without triggering my son's demand avoidance. None of this would work as well with my specific child if Aram did not have a naturally calm, confident presence that consistently communicates "I am a safe nervous system". He makes my son feel understood and safe. Aram makes my husband and I feel understood and safe and has been the most impactful therapeutic endeavor for our family to date.

My son's capacity has expanded and we are stepping out of burnout. My son leaves the house without panicking. My son notices when he is hungry and asks for food. My son actually wanted to leave the house for a drama camp this summer! And he enjoyed it! HUGE. My son is rebuilding his trust in the world.

In our first session, I was told that coming with any direction or demands would be anxiety-inducing and counterproductive. I brought a satchel of diverse crafting tools and materials to accommodate his need to stay in his room. I laid out the items without asking for engagement, and instead expressed open curiosity about things in his room he found valuable. This allowed him to engage slowly and cautiously. After seeing that I wasn't expecting anything from him, he eventually felt safe enough to bring me into his world. This looked like sharing his thoughts about characters and costumes. I began to write down and sketch what he was conceptualizing. This showed him that I was interested in what he had to say and additionally, that his ideas were so inspiring that I cared to realize his visions with or without him.

With more consistent engagement, I began to ask questions like "is this the shape you want for this piece." When my drawings were incorrect, I would hand him a pen to correct my work. This strengthened his trust in our collaborative engagement, leading him to feel safe enough to respect my requests for his engagement in future interactions. As our work continued we were able to take on many projects together such as screenplays, story arcs, prop creation, and costume design.

Some days we would spend 80% of our time playing and 20% conceptualizing characters' origin stories. On other days, we would spend 100% of our time cutting and gluing cardboard and fabric. How we spent our time was always a reflection of his energy level and interest on any given day.

Regardless of our engagement, I made sure that this client felt confident in his skillset and trusted that adults could collaborate with him without pushing him past his capacity. This confidence and trust formed a foundation that allowed him to expand his world larger than his home.

BCBA witness to my classroom and student advocacy:

I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and have been working in the field for over 15 years. I had the pleasure of working with Aram in a classroom, and Aram is one of the most skilled, intuitive, and dedicated employees I have seen in my time.

While working in a classroom with a student who exhibited significantly challenging behaviors, a new student joined. This new student hadn't attended school for a couple of years. When this student started at school, she was not provided with the appropriate type of services to meet her needs. Challenging behaviors included elopement, task refusal, physical aggression, screaming, and property displacement. For the majority of the school year, nearly 7 months, it was challenging for the school staff to support her needs.

In spring, Aram joined the case. He recognized that the student's challenging behavior was due to the fact that the student lost trust in those who worked with her and in the school system. When she expressed her needs and wants, she was often punished. The student was extremely hesitant to listen to instructors. Aram spent quality time listening, respecting, and honoring her needs. The rapport he built with her and the positive relationship he established made it possible for the student to trust instructors again. The student became more compliant and safe throughout her day. Aram was extremely intuitive to the student's needs. When the student escalated, he validated her feelings, and rather than being punitive, he offered a space for her to feel those emotions and modeled embodied emotional regulation strategies (i.e. breathing, stretching, jumping), to help her de-escalate. He was hyper-aware of how to handle difficult situations, and always responded appropriately to calm everyone down. He was also able to train others to follow his techniques. Aram allowed the student to feel empowered to voice her opinions and treated the student with the utmost respect and dignity.

Aram recognized that the student had a history of not receiving adequate services, and he made it a point to advocate for this student and her needs to the school district. He provided invaluable information to a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst so that a Behavioral Intervention Plan could be added to her Individual Education Plan. This ensured that the student’s behaviors could be handled appropriately in the context of any future instructor.

Aram understood that a strong foundation of trust between himself and the student was necessary in order for the student to feel comfortable learning in a school environment. Once trust was established, the student's challenging behavior dramatically decreased and she was able to learn and thrive in the classroom. Aram's skills and ability to effectively communicate, collaborate, and advocate for a student's needs are remarkable. He continues to carry these skills with all students he works with.

Family reference for my work with a12-year-old exhibiting explosive behaviors:

“Aram is the first adult who has ever been able to develop a meaningful connection with our son in a professional capacity. He started working with him when he was 12, at a time when my son was really struggling to manage his explosive behaviors and was unable to connect with most adults in school and family. Aram’s calm, non-judgmental yet fun and adventurous approach was the perfect combination and he was able to facilitate many wonderful outings and explorations, while developing a trusting and supportive relationship. He was even able to take my 7 year old along for some fun sibling adventures! As an amazing added bonus, Aram was a source of support for us as parents- never making us feel judged for our son or our family’s struggles.”

Family reference for my world-expanding and skills-building with a demand-avoidant 8-year-old:

“Aram has been fantastic at adapting to and forging a positive relationship with my neurodivergent, demand-avoidant 2nd-grader. I’ve been impressed at Aram’s thoughtful and flexible approach to his relationship with my son — being willing at a moment’s notice to switch gears, step back, or dial up to follow my child’s shifting capacity and needs, always with an eye to the ultimate goal of having a positive relationship that supports the healthy growth of my son emotionally, physically and mentally. I also love that Aram does this in the context of sharing all sorts of activities with my son that are way outside my wheelhouse — crabbing, woodworking, foraging — that broaden my son’s horizons.”

Distinct classroom teacher, witness to my work within highschool special education:

I have had the pleasure of working with Aram in his capacity as a teaching artist for a non-profit, South End Stories, working with my students. His presence in our classroom was a blessing as he has a joy, passion, and an intuitive skillset, for working with people with special needs. It is often difficult finding staff that want to work with students who have special needs. Moreover, it is double difficult to find people who want to do the job and are good at it. Aram has both the desire and the skills.

From his first day in the classroom, I was delighted by Aram’s desire to fully and authentically engage students and the tasks that were designed to move the students to the next level of proficiency in academic or life skills tasks. He enjoys the challenge of finding activities/practices that work best to meet each student where they are at.

An example of Aram engaging in this work is when he modeled and facilitated collaboration for students with special needs among thier peers in a general education art-class film project. Students with special needs have the right (and greatly benefit from) inclusion with their general education peers. These interactions have the ability to be powerful but also require some thought and consideration to be done well. Aram successfully addressed the needs of the special education students in this art class through every step of creating a short film. He then modeled to general education students the best ways to interact with the students he was supporting. And on the flip-side he imbedded socio-emotional skills into the students with special needs so they could reply and participate in these educationally collaborative relationships with general education students. Aram’s skillfull facilitation of this project enabled my students to, feel community connection in this group setting, and gain confidence from the formulation of a complex project my students could watch and be proud of.