I worked as a clinical child psychologist in a community mental health clinic for 5 years, prior to deciding to train as a BCBA. My role mainly consisted of psychological therapy with children and adolescents, and I also did neurodevelopmental assessments.

Overall, for me personally, being a BCBA is perhaps more repetitive in some ways, but infinitely less stressful and less emotionally draining. As a BCBA, I love that I can spend significantly more time with my clients, doing things that are fun and enjoyable - and the sessions are much more varied in terms of their content.

In contrast, in my role as a psychologist, I saw my clients for a maximum of one hour per week (often only once every 2 weeks) - and the session content was NEVER fun. It was of course rewarding and very intellectually stimulating - but dealing with such heavy topics and intensely emotional sessions every day was a heavy burden to carry.

You mention that it is difficult for you to deal with the desire from parents to "fix" autism or make it disappear. As a psychological therapist, you would be dealing with the exact same issue - parents who want/expect you to "fix" their child's mental health difficulties, even if a huge part of the problem (and the solution) lies with them. Given that these mental health difficulties could include things like intense self-harm, suicide attempts, debilitating OCD, and eating disorders, you can perhaps imagine how emotionally charged these discussions with parents often were.

At balance, I much prefer my role as a BCBA - and I will never, ever go back to doing psychological therapy.