Hello
I'm Christine
Hello
I'm Christine (owner & founder)
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, consider me part of your village—the part with a master's in education and a board certification in applied behavior analysis.
My journey in the world of ABA started back in 2013, and since then, I’ve been on a mission to help kids unlock their true potential.
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Born and raised in Germany, I earned my master's at the University of Technology in Aachen, and then completed training in ABA at the Florida Institute of Technology. You will find that I have an analytic mindset, a candid communication style, and a cheerful disposition—qualities that I believe are essential to my work.
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As a mother of two young daughters in San Francisco, I have a deep, understanding of the joys and challenges of parenthood, and I know what it's like to worry about one's child. My goal is to be a trusted resource you can lean on, so you can feel a little less alone and a lot more confident as a parent. Together we can support your child's progress and create lasting, positive change.
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Christine Koenig, M. Ed., BCBA (certification #: 1-17-27024)
Our Story
Direct Work with Clients
As Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), we are typically removed from the day-to-day therapy work with clients by one or two degrees. After the initial assessment and design of a treatment plan, we step aside, while behavior technicians, with limited training and experience provide direct services. The BCBA then goes on to supervise the team of technicians and modifies the treatment plan as the client progresses, but rarely gets a chance to provide direct support.
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While this organizational model is common practice in nearly all ABA agencies, I feel it limits both our effectiveness and our efficiency. This is the reason I decided to launch Little Valley ABA as an agency where behavior analysts provide direct, hands-on support at every level. Here, BCBAs can be fully dedicated and foster a direct connection with their clients, help them navigate challenges and most importantly get to witness the greatest moment of all, when a child's eyes light up with the spark of learning!
Prioritizing Sleep
There is so much we learn from our clients! One particular teenage boy opened my eyes to the importance of sleep. He was struggling with a variety of autism symptoms, food selectivity, and significant sleep disturbances. We started his ABA therapy and gained some nice steady progress in several skill acquisition areas, but we couldn't get a handle on some very problematic social behavior. These seemed to come from an internal place and were not responding well to any of the behavioral strategies we applied directly to them.
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Initially, we didn't target his sleep issues at all. I think we were too jaded and used to hearing about sleep trouble in our autistic clients. But when we did shift our focus on his sleep, the transformation was almost instant. As his sleep improved, so did his mood and his overall feeling of well-being. We reached a tipping point when he was consistently sleeping two additional hours every night compared to his baseline. When we reviewed his progress, it confirmed what everyone around him had already sensed: Not only had his learning accelerated across several domains, but his maladaptive social behavior had all but vanished!
Since then, we have integrated sleep interventions with all our clients from the very start of treatment, with the same powerful results. These sleep interventions include establishing healthy routines, reducing general stress and anxiety, creating meal and sleep schedules in-tune with the child's circadian rhythm, as well as nutrition counseling. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to our first "sleep" client and his family for allowing us to step outside traditional ABA protocols and explore this vital connection between autism symptoms and sleep!​​​
Interdisciplinary Approach
We understand that a child's development is influenced by a range of factors. That's why we go beyond traditional behavioral methods by collaborating with nutrition and sleep specialists. This integrated approach allows us to create a comprehensive and individualized therapy experience that addresses a child's unique needs from multiple perspectives, leading to more effective and sustainable outcomes.
Contact
Please reach out! We're here to listen to your story and explore how we can support your family.
(415) 370-4771