Description

• Honoring assent vs. reinforcing avoidance: A simple way to decide whether to encourage persistence, modify the demand, or back off when a learner says “not right now.”
• Getting unstuck: What to check first when a learner withdraws assent the moment you engage. Spoiler: it’s usually reinforcement and how adults show up during it, not the learner.
• You’re still a behavior analyst: Why shaping, first-then boards, and an enriched environment still belong in assent-based care.
• Where boundaries fit: What a boundary actually is (and isn’t). Also: “I can’t let you” vs. “I’m sorry, we have to,” and handling non-negotiables like diaper changes with dignity.
• Why “no” only at the hardest moments backfires: How a yes-only environment can set learners up for bigger escalations, and how to build in practice with disappointment.
• Setting boundaries early: The “steam, not a volcano” idea, and what the data looks like when boundaries are held consistently.
• Assent-based care in schools: Navigating consultation with school teams, holding your values while staying collaborative, and why it looks different (but still works) in a classroom.

Hosts: This conversation is led by Liisa Podosek (MSW, M.Ed, BCBA, LBA), Hillary Laney (M.Ed, BCBA, LBA), and Kalyn Riggs (BCBA, LBA), four practitioners who have done this work at scale. Liisa, Hillary, and Kalyn have spent years putting assent-based care into practice at scale: building it across a multi-state organization and mentoring hundreds of clinicians and thousands of clients along the way. Much of that work has centered on what a manual can’t really capture: earning real trust with clients, being a genuinely supportive presence, and knowing how to challenge someone with empathy, without breaking that trust. That’s the same balance we’ll be digging into in this conversation.

Published October 2026

When Assent-Based Care Goes Too Permissive

Worried that assent-based care means letting clients do whatever they want? You’re not alone, and you’re not wrong to ask.

As the field moves away from rigid, compliance-based practice (hooray!!), the pendulum can swing too far toward “no rules, anything goes.” In this candid, unscripted Q&A, Liisa Podosek, Hillary Laney, and Kalyn Riggs answer real questions from practitioners. They draw on years of building assent-based care across a national organization, and they talk about where the balance actually sits.

What we cover:

• Honoring assent vs. reinforcing avoidance: A simple way to decide whether to encourage persistence, modify the demand, or back off when a learner says “not right now.”
• Getting unstuck: What to check first when a learner withdraws assent the moment you engage. Spoiler: it’s usually reinforcement and how adults show up during it, not the learner.
• You’re still a behavior analyst: Why shaping, first-then boards, and an enriched environment still belong in assent-based care.
• Where boundaries fit: What a boundary actually is (and isn’t). Also: “I can’t let you” vs. “I’m sorry, we have to,” and handling non-negotiables like diaper changes with dignity.
• Why “no” only at the hardest moments backfires: How a yes-only environment can set learners up for bigger escalations, and how to build in practice with disappointment.
• Setting boundaries early: The “steam, not a volcano” idea, and what the data looks like when boundaries are held consistently.
• Assent-based care in schools: Navigating consultation with school teams, holding your values while staying collaborative, and why it looks different (but still works) in a classroom.

Hosts: This conversation is led by Liisa Podosek (MSW, M.Ed, BCBA, LBA), Hillary Laney (M.Ed, BCBA, LBA), and Kalyn Riggs (BCBA, LBA), four practitioners who have done this work at scale. Liisa, Hillary, and Kalyn have spent years putting assent-based care into practice at scale: building it across a multi-state organization and mentoring hundreds of clinicians and thousands of clients along the way. Much of that work has centered on what a manual can’t really capture: earning real trust with clients, being a genuinely supportive presence, and knowing how to challenge someone with empathy, without breaking that trust. That’s the same balance we’ll be digging into in this conversation.

Published October 2026