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Mission Statement

Autism prevalence has risen to 1 in 31 children in the U.S., with access to quality care remaining a significant challenge. Research demonstrates that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy significantly improves outcomes for children with autism. However, disparities in access, workforce challenges, and funding limitations often lead to inconsistent quality of care.

The commercialization of autism care has exacerbated these challenges. Many for-profit ABA providers prioritize financial growth over clinical quality. High turnover rates among behavior specialists, cost-cutting measures, and leadership with little to no clinical expertise have created an industry that focuses on billables rather than skill acquisition and behavioral improvement. Additionally, despite ethical concerns, the ever-increasing demand for academic performance and conformity has created a push for providers to use ABA in enforcing social normative behaviors, instead of nurturing the child’s unique potential. As a result, the best professionals leave the field or move out of network, making quality autism care increasingly inaccessible.

Our mission is to make high-quality, evidence-based, child-centered autism care accessible to all families by developing a sustainable, community-centered model that prioritizes clinical excellence. We are dedicated to serving children across the entire autism spectrum, ensuring that every child—regardless of their level of support needs—receives the specialized attention they deserve. We achieve this by hiring and retaining passionate behavior specialists at competitive rates while supplementing insurance reimbursements with additional funding sources only available to nonprofit organizations. By removing financial barriers and focusing on each child’s unique strengths, we aim to provide equitable, consistent, and effective care for all children with autism, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Kids playing at Yoli

Yoli is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are fully tax-deductible. If Yoli’s mission resonates with you, please consider supporting our mission.

Donate (We accept both In-kind, monetary and corporate donations)

The Yoli Model: What Sets Us Apart

Ethical ABA

We practice a progressive form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that honors the dignity of every child. We emphasize the least restrictive intervention possible, applying just enough support to help your child thrive without overwhelming them.

  • Preserving Childhood: Our priority is ensuring that therapy never comes at the expense of being a kid.
  • Family Integration: We design interventions that fit naturally into your existing family life, rather than disrupting it.

Meaningful Outcomes

True success isn’t measured by how well a child follows instructions; it is measured by their quality of life. We prioritize interventions that lead to long-term positive outcomes—such as independence, happiness, and self-advocacy—rather than focusing on mere compliance.

  • Strengths-Based: Every plan is built around your child’s unique abilities and potential.
  • Future-Focused: We teach skills that will serve your child well into adulthood, fostering autonomy and confidence.

Community-Centered

Raising a neurodivergent child can sometimes feel isolating. We actively facilitate family gatherings and events designed to encourage mutual support among parents and siblings.

  • Shared Experience: Gatherings that provide a safe space to share lived experiences and normalize the challenges families face.
  • Village of Support: We help build a network where families can celebrate wins and lean on one another during tough times.

Quality over Quantity

In an industry often driven by high volume, we take a different path. We maintain a *realistic and manageable clinician-to-client ratio. This ensures that our supervisors and therapists are never stretched too thin and can provide the deep, focused attention your child deserves.

  • Personalized Attention: Lower caseloads allow us to be truly responsive to the changing needs of your child.
  • Consistency: A manageable workload reduces burnout, leading to more consistent and reliable care for your family.

Self-Directed Learning

We believe that intrinsic motivation is the most powerful driver of learning. Rather than forcing a curriculum, we focus on your child’s specific interests—whether that is trains, space, art, or animals—and use those passions as the bridge to teaching new skills. Our clinicians are trained to build social and emotional goals directly into high-level cognitive play.

Yoli’s Non-Profit Model

As a non-profit organization, our bottom line is your child’s well-being, not shareholder returns. This model allows us to foster a high-quality, supportive work environment for our staff.

  • Investing in People: We pour our resources back into continuous professional development for our team.
  • Exceptional Care: By taking care of our clinicians, we ensure an exceptional caliber of clinical staff is available to support your family.

Why Families Choose Yoli

Traditional / For-Profit ABA The Yoli Way
Prioritizes billable hours over meaningful outcomes Prioritizes your child’s well-being — we’re a nonprofit, not driven by shareholder returns
High therapist caseloads (30+ clients per BCBA) lead to burnout and inconsistent care Low, manageable caseloads so your therapist can give focused, personalized attention
Compliance-focused: Teaching children to follow instructions and conform to social norms Autonomy-focused: Building independence, self-advocacy, and honoring neurodiversity
Curriculum-driven: One-size-fits-all programs Child-led learning: We follow your child’s interests (trains, art, space) to teach new skills
Table-time drills that can feel like work Play-based sessions where learning happens through joy
High staff turnover (the best clinicians leave or go out-of-network) Stable, passionate team — we retain top clinicians with competitive pay and healthy workloads
Leadership with little clinical expertise focused on growth and profits BCBA-led organization committed to clinical excellence and ethical practice
Families feel like customers in a transactional relationship Families become part of a supportive community with regular family gatherings

Meet our Team

Laura Kliger, BCBA, MADS

Executive Director and Clinical Manager, Yoli
Laura Kliger

Hello. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with an insatiable passion for child development and self-directed learning. I have been working in many settings (homes, schools, clinics and in the community) with children of all ages. I have been supporting parents, teachers, and therapists to better understand and manage behaviors. My passion is to help parents reclaim their role; to understand their child’s behavior and to make changes that allow the family to live in a more cohesive and symbiotic way.

In 2009, I started working with preschool aged children and found myself drawn to those with Autism and other neurodivergent traits. I pursued this interest straight into a career in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). While I love working directly with children and after becoming a parent myself, I became steadfast in my conviction that the most meaningful and long lasting behavior change comes from the safety and connectivity of child-parent relationships. This shifted my focus to wanting to help parents learn to enact change in their own children. As my children grew, I also started questioning contemporary education as a whole, and have integrated the abundance of research on the benefits of self-directed learning and intrinsic motivation to my practice of behavior change. While at first this research seemed to contradict some of the work I had been doing, I quickly realized that it was the field of ABA, not the science, that had been shaped to accommodate our education system. I want to help you integrate the benefits of self-directed learning using the science of Applied Behavior Analysis to help your child thrive.

Our Clinical Team

Yoli is defined by the quality of our clinical team. We believe that to provide the best care, we must create the best work environment. We achieve clinical excellence by hiring and retaining top-tier behavior specialists at competitive rates. We specifically seek professionals who are committed to a child-centered approach to ABA and who focus on meaningful, long-term outcomes. Our non-profit model allows us to foster a high-quality, supportive work environment, investing significantly in continuous professional development to ensure an exceptional caliber of staff. By maintaining a realistic and manageable clinician-to-client ratio, we prevent burnout and ensure our staff can deliver the high-quality, personalized care every child deserves. This focus on staff support and clinical quality is how we combat the high turnover seen in the commercialized autism care sector.

Yoli’s Board of Directors

Yoli is guided by a Board of Directors committed to our mission. Our board is intentionally composed of both seasoned clinicians and families who have previously received ABA services. This diverse perspective ensures that all decisions balance clinical excellence with the practical, lived experience of families. They provide comprehensive insight into how we can make Yoli the best, most impactful Autism care possible for every family we serve.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does starting behavioral intervention look like?

We will begin with an initial 15 min phone call to determine if Yoli is a good fit for your family.

INITIAL MEETING

We will meet to complete an intake package that will help you learn about our services. This is a good time to ask questions to better understand the nature of the behavioral interventions we offer.

INTAKE MEETING

We will meet to complete and discuss some intake questions that will help us learn about your child and your family. We will also discuss any behavior(s) that you are seeking help with. This will help us deepen our understanding of the processes that trigger, control, and maintain the behavior.

EVALUATION

Observation is a key component to understanding behavior. It is especially helpful if we can see the behavior on several different occasions. We will come and observe your child at the time and place that is most relevant and most likely for the behavior to occur. We may also ask that you share some video recordings through a secure link, so that we can observe the behavior further. When possible, we will try to observe your child in two different environments. We will also meet with your child to conduct a direct assessment that we will use to inform their individualized intervention and the course of their treatment.

TREATMENT PLAN

Using the information we have gathered, we will develop a written plan. We will review the behavior plan together and ensure that we are in agreement about how to proceed as well as work out any concerns or barriers to implementation that you may foresee.

TREATMENT

We will work together to implement the behavior treatment plan. This means that you and your clinical team, composed of a Clinical Supervisor and Therapist, and overseen by a BCBA, will work collaboratively to implement the intervention plan. Your child will have regularly scheduled sessions at Yoli’s playspace (or out in the community depending on need) in which they engage in play-based and self-motivated activities. The clinical team will involve you, the parents / caregivers, by modeling interventions and helping you to practice these so that you can implement them consistently with your child outside of sessions. The number of hours and sessions your child will receive will depend on the initial assessment.

FOLLOW-UP

Regular monthly clinical meetings will take place with the Clinical Supervisor / BCBA in order to review your child’s progress. During these meetings, you will review data that has been collected by your child’s therapist on the various skills targeted for intervention. The supervisor / BCBA will use these data to make recommendations and determine progress.

What is Self-Directed Learning (SDL) / Self-Directed Education (SDE)? It simply means focusing on your child’s interests and on the way that they learn best, trusting them to take the lead in deciding what, how, and when they learn. It involves creating an environment that works best for your child, one in which they are motivated to learn. This way of learning is based on the principles of intrinsic motivation for which research has shown not only enhanced learning outcomes but also greater long-term life satisfaction and personal well-being.
What is Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA? Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the science of human behavior. Its methods are empirically validated and it is regarded as a long-standing method for changing human behavior. It involves the principles of learning theory and its main focus is to increase desired behaviors, generalize learned behaviors or reduce undesirable behaviors. Applied behavior analysis has a longstanding robust body of research supporting its efficacy especially as it relates to the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder but it can also be applied to other populations and to almost any behavior.
How can these two approaches work together? Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Self-Directed Learning (SDL) share a love of natural environments. Both place the utmost emphasis on the quality, richness and power of the environment in which a child lives. ABA and SDL look at how you can change the environment to best fit the child’s learning style instead of focusing on the child’s “bad” behavior.
Does behavior change mean changing my child? Absolutely not. On the contrary! The approach at Yoli focuses on acceptance of every child as they are. This concept is key to moving forward and making changes. Underlying acceptance is the cessation of comparison to other children and seeing and accepting them for where they are in their developmental journey. Behavior is one of the ways in which children communicate. Often, they are communicating that they lack the skills necessary to navigate a situation. Together we will find functional replacement behaviors and prioritize skill building.
Can you provide examples of behaviors?
  • Oppositional behavior
  • Following routines
  • Picky / selective eating
  • Task completion
  • Fine / gross motor skill deficits
  • Developing autonomy
  • Social skills
  • Tantrums
  • Toileting
  • Verbal communication
  • Emotional dysregulation
  • Understanding social cues’
  • Difficulty with Transitions
  • Sustained attention
How much does it cost?

With Insurance: Your cost is determined by your specific insurance plan. We recommend contacting your insurance to ask about your benefits for therapy, such as co-pays, deductibles, or reimbursement rates. We are happy to help you navigate this process.

Without Insurance / Sliding Scale: We are deeply committed to working with socioeconomically diverse families and believe cost should not be a barrier to care. If you do not have insurance, or if your plan’s costs are too high, Yoli offers a sliding fee scale based on family needs. We strive to not turn anyone away due to financial hardship.

Please feel comfortable reaching out to us via our contact form. We can discuss your specific situation and find a path forward.

Can you bill my insurance directly?
  • We accept most major insurance plans
  • Vendorized with the Regional Center of the East Bay (RCEB), Contra Costa Health Plan (CCHP), Alameda Alliance, and Partnership HealthPlan (PHC)
  • MediCal approved

For insurances with whom Yoli is in-network, we will submit claims to your insurance directly. For insurances with whom we are an out-of-network provider, depending on your plan, we will either submit a claim, or provide you with a superbill which you can choose to submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement.

Facing long waitlists? Read our guide on Using California’s “Timely Access” Laws to Skip the Waitlist.

I am not a parent but a Professional seeking consultation? Perhaps you are a teacher, SLP, Psychologist, or PT, and you have a particular client/student with challenging behaviors and need some help. Yoli welcomes collaboration! Feel free to contact us.

Need help navigating the “system”? Discover practical guides, affirming approaches to autism, and transparent information in our resource center below.