Lori Waltman

Lori Waltman didn't find ABA therapy in a textbook. She found it as a mother.

In her early twenties, Lori was raising a daughter with self-injurious behaviors, frequent outbursts, and mild developmental delays - and supporting a nephew who was non-verbal with significant behavioral needs. Wanting to understand how to help them, she went back to school. Before long, both her daughter and her nephew received autism diagnoses. Those experiences didn't just shape her professionally. They became the foundation of everything she does.

Lori holds a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Communication Disorders (with a minor in Child Psychology) and a Master of Education in Special Education. After earning her graduate degree, she pursued post-master's training in Applied Behavior Analysis and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) in May 2016. She is currently approximately 50% through a PhD in Applied Behavior Analysis.

Over more than a decade, Lori has practiced ABA across nearly every setting imaginable: public school classrooms in Illinois, in-home agencies, ABA clinics, group homes through Tennessee's Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD), and hospital-based IDD programs. She has worked with individuals from 18 months old to their eighties. Her clinical range spans Autism Spectrum Disorder and the conditions that often come with it: ADHD, ODD, anxiety, OCD, PTSD. She is also one of the few rural Tennessee providers trained to administer the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2).

She co-founded Developmental Journeys ABA because she wanted to build the practice she always wished had existed - one that treats families as partners, meets them where they are (literally), and never loses sight of the real human beings at the center of every treatment plan.

"My goal is to partner with families, provide guidance without criticism, and offer practical, respectful strategies that fit into real life."