A new autism diagnosis rarely arrives alone.
It often comes with a stack of appointments, a folder of acronyms, and a quiet worry that you’re supposed to magically hold it all together at all times.
In fact, support is key, and great ABA therapy rarely involves a single professional working in isolation. More often, it’s interdisciplinary therapy: a team of specialists who each support your child from different angles to help them unlock their potential.
At The Portia Learning Centre, one of those team members may be a psychologist. To explain how this additional support works, we spoke with Dr. Dillon Browne, a licensed clinical psychologist in Ontario who works alongside Portia’s clinical team.
Dr. Browne earned his PhD in School and Clinical Child Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto), then completed his clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California.
He’s also a professor at the University of Waterloo, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Child and Family Clinical Psychology.
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Psychiatrist vs Psychotherapist vs Psychologist: What’s the Difference?
As a clinical psychologist with nearly 15 years of experience, Dr. Browne can speak deeply to three roles parents often use interchangeably, and to why a psychologist is particularly valuable in ABA therapy.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who focuses on diagnostic assessment and medication management, which matters most for children who also have ADHD, mood, or behavioural challenges, though child psychiatrists are rare and wait times can be long.
A psychotherapist provides therapy but doesn’t diagnose.
Meanwhile, a psychologist completes doctoral-level training, conducts a comprehensive assessment, can diagnose and provide psychotherapy, but doesn’t prescribe medication.
What sets a psychologist apart is the depth of their assessment training. Since the doctorate is a research degree, psychologists helped build many of the tools used to identify conditions like autism, ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and they can formally diagnose, something psychotherapists and social workers can’t do.
What a Psychologist Adds to Your Child’s ABA Team
What a psychologist brings to the table is a wide-angle view. Dr. Browne describes it as seeing a child “from the neuron to the neighbourhood.”
Imagine a bullseye: the child and family sit at the centre, surrounded by their peers, school, and neighbourhood, and then by the broader policy and culture in which they live. Look inward, and there are physiological and genetic factors at play, too.
Because of their research training, psychologists are highly skilled at understanding how those layers interact, and at helping design and evaluate a child’s overall ABA therapy plan across all of them.
Helping Untangle “Diagnosis Soup”
When more than one condition is present at the same time, clinicians call it a “comorbidity”, and as Dr. Browne puts it, “it’s the rule rather than the exception.”
Over time, families can end up with what Dr. Browne calls “diagnosis soup,” a long alphabet of labels: ASD, ADHD, OCD, ODD, and more.
This can make a proper assessment incredibly difficult.
Consider a child who needs strict routines and repeats the same actions over and over, like flicking light switches or checking locks. Repetitive behaviour is a feature of autism, but it can also point to obsessive-compulsive disorder, where rituals are used to quiet anxiety.
While a child may have both conditions, distinguishing between the two is one of the harder calls in the field, and it’s exactly the kind of nuance a psychologist’s assessment training is built for.
Did You Know? According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, 68.7 percent of Canadian children and youth with autism had another long-term health condition, compared with 21.9 percent of those without autism.
How Psychologists & Behaviour Analysts Work Together
Interdisciplinary therapy works best when the professionals are genuinely aligned, and in Ontario, the structures are catching up to that idea.
The two professions are now overseen by a single regulator, the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario, reflecting a shared commitment to evidence-based care.
That common ground shows up day-to-day. At Portia, Dr. Browne meets monthly with the clinical supervisors and behaviour analysts to review a Learner’s full file and treatment plan, bringing the current challenges to the table so the team can problem-solve together.
He offered a general example. Imagine a child who suddenly no longer wants to go outside in the summer.
The first hypothesis might be sensory: the heat, the humidity, and new smells. The team tries some adjustments, but they don’t quite land. Perhaps something happened on the playground, so they look again.
Perhaps the Learner’s history now points in an unexpected direction: a scare with a dog or a wasp sting, and a simple, practical response, like long sleeves or a gentle, step-by-step exposure plan, makes all the difference.
It’s a “test, learn, and adjust” rhythm, grounded in data. Portia tracks each Learner’s progress with Portia ABA clinic software, so the team can see what is genuinely working rather than simply hoping it is.
Supporting the Whole Family, Not Just the Child
Many families arrive already stretched thin, often during the first year after a diagnosis. A useful idea here is integrated care, sometimes called “wrap-around”.
The principle is straightforward: the people supporting a child should coordinate so the family doesn’t have to. Too often, Dr. Browne points out, the job of quietly integrating everything falls to parents, which is a heavy and unfair load to carry.
When the team reviews a child’s plan, it looks at every service in play: occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, tutoring, an educational assistant at school, psychiatry, and ABA. Many families are navigating funding through the Ontario Autism Program and private insurance at the same time.
Underneath all of it is a gentle reframing: children and parents aren’t problems to be solved. Parents are part of the team and, as Dr. Browne says, “the experts of being parents.”
Psychologists can also offer caregivers practical strategies to use at home through parent support sessions, which you can build on with Portia’s free ABA printables and resources.
Taking the First Step
At its heart, interdisciplinary therapy, with a psychologist on the team, is about lightening your load and keeping the plan coherent, caring, and evidence-based.
The goal is not to fix your child but to understand them and support your whole family in the process. In fact, Dr. Browne often returns to a line from psychologist Carl Rogers as a hopeful reminder, for children and parents alike, that you’re enough:
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Your child’s potential is within reach. When you’re ready, take the first step: book a free screening or complete an intake form, and together we can build the right team around your family.