About Us
Hannah Kaplan-Reimer (she/her), M.A., BCBA, LBA, TOH, began working with children and adults with diverse neurotypes in 1999 during her years as a student at Vassar College. She became intensely interested in compassion as a practice after attending the Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training series in 2014 (twice, because she roped her husband into going with her the second time). This was followed by multiple other compassion training courses including those that bridge the work of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CFACT) as well as the Compassionate Mind Training facilitator series with Dr. Chris Irons and Dr. Charlie Heriot-Maitland.
Hannah is an affiliate of the Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group (LCSRG) led by Dr. Emily Sandoz. Together, Dr. Sandoz, Hannah, their colleagues, and a wide cohort of behavior analytic practitioners edited 25 articles on compassion in behavior analysis in a Special Issue in Behavior Analysis and Practice.
Hannah continues to work on cultivating compassion in her own life as a continually evolving process. She is passionate about integrating her varying professional and personal lenses in a way that facilitates accessibility of compassionate practices to diverse perspectives.
Megan Duffy Cassella (she/her), MA., BCBA has been in the field of behavior analysis since 2001. She worked in many settings using applied behavior analysis (ABA), but following 2014, after her own kiddos, her perspective and desire to use ABA changed. She began seeking information on “kind ABA” practices, compassion, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), cultural humility, and trauma-informed interventions. It’s then that she reconnected with a former colleague, Hannah Kaplan-Reimer, and discovered the shift that ABA was taking in terms of compassion, diversity, and many other values with which she aligns.
Since then, Meg’s practice has shifted to match these goals, has presented her ideas, and engages in research regarding the subject of compassion. She is committed to embracing and disseminating compassionate practices, including how the arts can be infused into these.
Meg continues to learn and grow through this process in both her professional and personal life, and is excited to continue this journey.
Vanessa Del Águila Vargas is a psychologist and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) psychotherapist based in Lima, Peru. Her clinical practice focuses on clinical behavior analysis from a contextual perspective, and she has a notable commitment to research and social intervention. She is a researcher affiliated with the Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, under the direction of Dr. Emily Sandoz, with whom she is part of a research on the conceptual analysis of compassion and participatory projects in communities in Lima and Lafayette.
In the clinical setting, Vanessa has specialized in facilitating groups on topics such as mindfulness, compassion and body image, as well as developing workshops focused on violence from the perspective of Contextual Behavioral Science. Her work has focused especially on adolescent mothers and victims of violence who face conditions of extreme poverty in Peru.
In addition, she has collaborated in a chapter of the book “FACT de groups. Integrating ACT and FAP from groups” in Ediciones Psara, a significant contribution to the field of acceptance and commitment therapy applied in group settings. Its innovative and multidisciplinary approach reflects a strong commitment to the behavioral and social well-being of the communities in which it works.