Yvonne Bruinsma, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Executive Director

Yvonne Bruinsma founded In STEPPS in 2010. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field. She previously gained extensive experience as the clinical director and clinical manager at several agencies and brought PRT to the Netherlands. She has been an active researcher and continues publishing in the field. Yvonne has written articles in peer-reviewed journals and in 2015, wrote and published a seminal article with other top researchers in autism treatment about Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions such as PRT. Yvonne also has co-written a book about Naturalistic Developmental Behavior Interventions (NDBI) currently in press. She has worked in a variety of settings, including developmental centers, group homes for adults with developmental disabilities, vocational sites, and schools. She earned her master’s in developmental psychology from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and her master’s and a doctorate in special education, developmental disabilities, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Yvonne was certified as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D) in 2008.

Get to know Yvonne:

What are three items on your bucket list?

African Safari, para-sailing, and meditation retreat

If you could choose anyone superpower, what would you choose?

Transporting myself to any place of my choosing in an instant

What’s one TV show you never miss?

Handmaiden’s Tale

What’s your most prized possession?

My mom’s bracelet I received when she passed

How do you spend your weekends?

With my kids!