Katja Keane

Trainee Supervisor, M.Sc. ABA, BCBA (Certificant 1-21-50341)

Katja graduated from the Irish College for Humanities and Applied Science in Limerick, Irland, as a counsellor/psychotherapist and worked for many years in one of Ireland’s leading mental health charities. In this role, she offers psychological support, developed workshop programs for students, and delivered these workshops in schools. She has also presented a course on “Counseling Skills and Practice” at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Through raising her own child with Autism, and inspired by her love for teaching, Katja became more interested in methods designed to specifically help families who have a child with ASD. This brought her to study ABA at the National University of Ireland, Galway from which she graduated with a MSc in 2016. During her studies, Katja worked at the Red Hill School for children with Autism in Limerick, where she trained with the resident Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Her work in the school was mainly focused on the assessment of behavior, the development of behavior support plans, and overseeing their implementation by the teachers. There, Katja was exposed to many different children with a range of abilities and challenges, such as stereotypical behavior, social interaction, and cognitive development deficits. Katja also developed and implemented an 8-week long intervention for two classes in the school, teaching children about awareness of inner sensations, feelings, acceptance and mindfulness. Since finishing her studies Katja has worked as a home tutor in Ireland under BCBA supervision, where she learned about the ABA/VB approach of Robert Schramm. Katja has worked as a one-on-one tutor with two children in their home setting with a focus on verbal behavior. As a native German, Katja returned to Germany beginning of 2018 and joined Knospe-ABA’s team of talented consultants to continue her development in Robert’s ABA/VB approach and supports children with autism and related disorders mainly in the north and east of Germany. In addition Katja is also supervising the trainees of Knospe-ABA and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) in June of 2021.