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Joy F Johnson, MEd, MS, BCBA

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Timonium, MD
Joy F Johnson, MEd, MS, BCBA

Assent-based, culturally responsive ABA therapy for Autistic and Neurodivergent individuals. Led by Joy F.

Johnson, M.Ed., M.S., BCBA, LBA, we offer in-center and in-home services, social groups, and DORS-approved support for lasting growth.

01/09/2026

Many Autistic teens and adults are pushed toward goals that prioritize timelines, productivity, or independence — often at the cost of regulation, wellbeing, and identity. Redefining Success was created to offer a different path.

Redefining Success is a digital guide for parents, caregivers, Autistic teens, and Autistic adults who want to approach goals through a support-first, neurodivergent-affirming lens. Instead of focusing on compliance or age-based expectations, this guide helps readers understand how capacity, executive functioning, emotional regulation, and environment impact progress — and how goals can be adjusted without shame.

This guide provides practical frameworks and reflective tools to help families and individuals:
• distinguish between motivation and executive functioning
• recognize when goals need support, pacing, or adjustment
• reduce burnout and pressure around expectations
• build goals collaboratively, with autonomy and dignity
• measure progress in ways that prioritize wellbeing

Redefining Success is not a therapy program or checklist. It is a flexible, reusable resource designed to be revisited as needs, capacity, and circumstances change.

Format: Digital guide (downloadable)
Who it’s for: Parents of Autistic teens or adults, Autistic teens, and Autistic adults
Use: Self-paced, reflective, and practical
Available on my website (link in bio)

01/09/2026

This is for the Autistic person who keeps pushing —
even when your body is screaming.
Even when your brain is fogged.
Even when rest feels unsafe.

You were taught that stopping meant failing.
That slowing down meant losing ground.
That your worth depended on how much you could endure.

That wasn’t resilience.
That was conditioning.

Burnout is not a personal flaw.
Shutdown is not weakness.
Needing rest is not a lack of discipline.

If functioning requires pain,
the problem is not your effort.
It’s the demand.

You don’t need to go harder.
You don’t need to push through this.
You don’t need to prove capacity by harming yourself.

You need relief.
You need regulation.
You need space to stop without consequence.

Rest is not quitting.
Rest is repair.
Rest is survival in a world that asks too much.

01/09/2026

This is for Autistic people who learned to survive by pushing past their limits.

The ones who were praised for endurance.
The ones who were taught that rest meant falling behind.
The ones who learned to override their bodies just to be seen as capable.

If you’re burned out, that’s not a personal failure.
If you’re shutting down, that’s not weakness.
If rest feels unsafe, that’s not a flaw.

That’s your nervous system responding to demands that were never built for you.

You don’t need to go harder.
You don’t need to push through this.
You don’t need to prove capacity by harming yourself.

Rest isn’t quitting.
It’s regulation.
It’s repair.
It’s survival.

Save this if you need the reminder.

01/08/2026

Wanting independence, success, or change —
and struggling to start or follow through —
can exist at the same time.

That isn’t laziness.
It isn’t lack of motivation.
It’s often an executive functioning support gap.

Executive functioning impacts initiation, organization, energy management, and follow-through.
When those systems aren’t supported, effort alone isn’t enough — and pressure only increases shame and burnout.

Support changes outcomes.

Not everyone needs the same level of support — and that’s okay.

That’s why I created two options, designed to either stand alone or work together, depending on what you need right now:

⸻

🧠 Executive Functioning Support Packet

Choose this if you:
• want practical tools you can start using right away
• need support with initiation, planning, follow-through, or regulation
• want a self-paced, neurodivergent-affirming resource
• are a teen, adult, or caregiver looking for structure without pressure

This packet focuses on capacity, clarity, and sustainable progress — not productivity or compliance.

⸻

🔍 Executive Functioning Assessment + Individualized Recommendations

Choose this if you:
• feel stuck and aren’t sure where the breakdown is
• have tried tools before and they didn’t stick
• want individualized insight and clear next steps
• are supporting a teen or adult with complex or layered needs

✨ This option includes:
• a comprehensive executive functioning assessment
• a 1:1 session to review results and recommendations
• the Executive Functioning Support Packet (no need to purchase separately)

Support ≠ lowered expectations.
Support creates access.

Save this. Share it.
And if this resonates, Both options are available on my website.( link is in my bio.)

01/08/2026

Wanting independence, success, or change —
and struggling to start or follow through —
can exist at the same time.

That isn’t laziness.
It isn’t lack of motivation.
It’s often an executive functioning support gap.

Executive functioning impacts initiation, organization, energy management, and follow-through.
When those systems aren’t supported, effort alone isn’t enough — and pressure only increases shame and burnout.

Support changes outcomes.

Not everyone needs the same level of support — and that’s okay.

That’s why I created two options, designed to either stand alone or work together, depending on what you need right now:

⸻

🧠 Executive Functioning Support Packet

Choose this if you:
• want practical tools you can start using right away
• need support with initiation, planning, follow-through, or regulation
• want a self-paced, neurodivergent-affirming resource
• are a teen, adult, or caregiver looking for structure without pressure

This packet focuses on capacity, clarity, and sustainable progress — not productivity or compliance.

⸻

🔍 Executive Functioning Assessment + Individualized Recommendations

Choose this if you:
• feel stuck and aren’t sure where the breakdown is
• have tried tools before and they didn’t stick
• want individualized insight and clear next steps
• are supporting a teen or adult with complex or layered needs

✨ The assessment includes the Executive Functioning Support Packet, so there’s no need to purchase it separately.

⸻

Support ≠ lowered expectations.
Support creates access.

Save this. Share it.
And if this resonates, Both options are available on my website.( link is in my bio.)

01/07/2026

Executive functioning support matters.

Starting tasks, organizing steps, managing energy, and following through aren’t about willpower or motivation. They’re neurological processes — and when they aren’t supported, effort alone isn’t enough.

Supporting executive functioning isn’t lowering expectations.
It’s removing barriers.

When we provide the right tools, structure, and understanding, we make progress possible without pressure, shame, or burnout.

Support changes outcomes.

Save this. Share it.

01/06/2026

Resistance is information, not defiance.
When effort increases but capacity doesn’t, pushing harder doesn’t build skills — it overwhelms the nervous system.
Progress should feel stabilizing, not destabilizing.

01/05/2026

Independence isn’t something Autistic people “fail” to reach.
It’s something that emerges when the right supports exist.
When we remove support and call it growth, we don’t create independence — we create harm.

01/03/2026

I am not antisocial.
I am selective — because engagement costs me something.

What hurts isn’t disagreement.
What hurts is discovering that people who don’t know me
have decided who I am.

While they’re forming opinions,
they’re not even on my radar.

I don’t dislike them.
I don’t judge them.
I don’t think about them at all.

And somehow, that absence gets mistaken for intention.
For attitude.
For aggression.

But neutrality isn’t hostility.
Silence isn’t punishment.
Boundaries aren’t disrespect.

I’m not withholding warmth.
I’m not making a statement.
I’m not trying to be mean.

I’m regulating.

Engagement takes effort.
Masking takes effort.
Explaining myself takes effort.

So I reserve what I have
for people, spaces, and connections
that are safe, meaningful, and aligned.

If I don’t engage, it doesn’t mean I feel negatively about you.
It usually means I feel nothing — and that’s allowed.

That isn’t arrogance.
That isn’t antisocial behavior.
That isn’t attitude.

That’s autonomy.
That’s honesty.
That’s self-preservation.

01/03/2026

Being misunderstood as a Black Autistic woman means my differences are often treated as character flaws.

Within and outside my community, my traits aren’t contextualized — they’re moralized.
Directness becomes “attitude.”
Quiet becomes “antisocial.”
Boundaries become “aggression.”

Because Black autistic people are underdiagnosed and underrecognized, autism is rarely considered. So when I don’t perform comfort or small talk, I’m labeled “funny acting,” difficult, or a B*tch — instead of different.

The truth is, I’m deeply introverted.
Engagement costs me something.
Regulation costs me something.
Masking costs me something.

So I reserve my energy for depth, not performance.

I’m not for everyone, and everyone isn’t for me — and that’s okay.
It doesn’t mean either of us is bad.
I trust my intuition, and if something doesn’t feel right, or I sense we’re not aligned, I don’t force it.

Autonomy is not aggression.
Boundaries are not attitude.
And choosing honesty over comfort does not make me difficult — it makes me whole.

01/02/2026

I didn’t wake up one day and “choose” authenticity.
I survived long enough to remember who I was before the world told me who to be.

For a long time, masking looked like safety.
Quiet looked like protection.
Being “manageable” looked like love.

But it was never freedom.

Unmasking isn’t rebellion.
It’s reclamation.
It’s listening to a nervous system that always knew the truth, even when my mouth wasn’t allowed to say it.

When you are Black and Autistic, the Matrix isn’t optional.
It’s taught early.
It’s enforced often.
And it’s praised when you disappear just enough to make others comfortable.

So no—I didn’t choose the red pill.
I chose myself.
Again and again.
Even when it cost me rooms, relationships, and belonging that required my erasure.

This isn’t about being “too much.”
It’s about being whole.

Unmasking the Matrix means choosing truth over performance.
Presence over survival.
And self over silence.

01/02/2026

The Matrix framed it as a choice:
red pill or blue pill.

But for Black Autistic people,
that choice has never been clean —
and it has never been safe.

The blue pill looks like survival.
Masking.
Tone-policing yourself.
Making your needs smaller.
Learning which parts of you are allowed to exist in public.

The red pill looks like clarity.
Seeing the system for what it is.
Realizing your struggle was never a personal failure —
it was the cost of navigating structures
that were never built with you in mind.

But here’s what the metaphor misses:

For us, the blue pill erases us.
And the red pill exposes us.

Awareness doesn’t come with protection.
Truth doesn’t come with safety.
And authenticity doesn’t come without consequence.

Being Black and Autistic means
you are punished for masking
and punished for unmasking.

So no — this isn’t about choosing illusion or awakening.
It’s about surviving in a world
that demands invisibility
and punishes visibility.

And still,
some of us choose the red pill anyway —
not because it’s brave,
but because disappearing
was never an option.
✨

Address

2 Hamill Road Suite 225
Timonium, MD
21210

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 8pm
Tuesday	9am - 8pm
Wednesday	9am - 8pm
Thursday	9am - 8pm
Friday	9am - 8pm

Telephone

+12282236792

Website

http://Joyfjohnson.com/

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about me.

I am a Behavior Specialist, Inclusion Specialist, and Autism Advocate who partners with organizations, individuals, and families to improve the lives of those impacted by autism. After spending years working in clinical settings, non-profits, and schools, my experience enables me to to truly serve and represent ASD community members in various contexts. I hold a Masters in education, a Masters in psychology with a specialization in ABA, and I am currently a PhD candidate .

In addition to my extensive education professional experiences, I have a great deal personal experience. I am diagnosed with autism myself which provides me with a unique knowledge, perspective ,and source of passion.