Positive Behaviour Support
Understanding, safety, and support
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is a person-centred approach that aims to improve quality of life. Generally a Behaviour Support Practitioner is engaged in support where a person is demonstrating behaviours of concern (BOCs) which impact on their quality of life.
What is Positive Behaviour Support?
Rather than focusing only on behaviours, PBS seeks to understand the factors contributing to a person's experiences and identify ways to improve their wellbeing, independence, participation, and overall quality of life.
Behaviour is communication.
When a person experiences distress, overwhelm, shutdown, aggression, withdrawal, self-injury, or other behaviours of concern, PBS looks beyond the behaviour itself to understand what may be contributing to it.
This can include:
- Communication needs
- Sensory experiences
- Physical and mental health
- Trauma history
- Relationships
- Environmental factors
- Daily demands and expectations
- Access to meaningful activities
By understanding these factors, we can create supports that better meet a person's needs and reduce barriers to success. We also gain the opportunity to provide training to support teams, families and others involved in the day to day care of the person or child.
My Approach
Positive Behaviour Support works best when we focus on understanding people rather than changing them.
Many of the people and families I support have spent years being told that behaviours need to be fixed, managed, or controlled. Yet, when we focus solely on controlling behaviour, we often miss the reasons it is occurring in the first place. In some cases, increased attempts to control behaviour can actually lead to greater distress, escalation, and disconnection.
I take a different approach. Drawing on both my trauma-informed background and Positive Behaviour Support practice, I work from the understanding that all people have fundamental human needs.
Connection
Feeling understood, valued, and safe in relationships
Competence
Feeling capable, successful, and able to navigate everyday life
Control
Having meaningful choice, autonomy, and influence over one's own life
When these needs are not being met, behaviour often becomes a form of communication. Rather than asking, "How do we stop this behaviour?", I ask, "What is this person trying to tell us?"
I often describe my role as that of a behaviour translator. My job is to work alongside the individual, their family, and their support network to understand the message behind the behaviour, identify unmet needs, and develop practical strategies that improve quality of life.
When people feel safer, more connected, more capable, and more in control of their lives, positive change often follows naturally.
Behaviour can escalate for a number of reasons such as:
- Communication differences
- Sensory experiences
- Emotional overwhelm
- Trauma
- Anxiety
- Environmental demands
- Relationships
- Unmet support needs
- Limited opportunities for choice and control (loss of autonomy)
- Feeling like a burden
- Grief
Rather than asking "How do we stop this behaviour?" I work with people and families to understand "What is this person experiencing, and what do they need?"
The family system
Behaviour does not occur in isolation. When one family member is struggling, the impact is often felt across the entire family system.
Positive Behaviour Support recognises the important role parents, caregivers, siblings, and other family members play in a person's life. My approach acknowledges the expertise families bring and aims to work alongside them, building confidence, understanding, and practical strategies that support everyone involved.
Supporting quality of life means considering the wellbeing of the individual while also recognising the needs, strengths, and experiences of those who support them every day. When we better understand the reasons behind behaviour, we can begin creating environments that promote safety, connection, learning, participation, and wellbeing.
For children and young people, this often means supporting the important adults around them as much as the child themselves.
For adults, this may involve supporting family members, support workers, workplaces, service providers, or other members of their support network.
Positive and lasting change happens when everyone works together toward the same goals.
Reducing Restrictive Practices
Restrictive practices should only ever be considered when there are significant safety concerns and all reasonable alternatives have been explored.
As a Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner, one of my key responsibilities is to work toward reducing and, wherever possible, eliminating restrictive practices.
This process begins by understanding why the restrictive practice is being used. In many situations, behaviours of concern are not solely the result of something occurring within the individual. They often emerge when a person's environment, supports, communication needs, sensory needs, or life circumstances are no longer meeting their needs.
Throughout my career, I have worked alongside people who had restrictive practices in place and have witnessed the significant difference that respectful, person-centred support can make.
I have seen people who were described as "challenging" thrive when they were provided with greater autonomy, genuine choice, predictable support, meaningful relationships, and environments that respected their communication and sensory needs.
I have also seen support teams achieve positive outcomes without relying on restrictive approaches because they took the time to understand the person behind the behaviour.
People do well when they can.
When someone is struggling, our first question should not be, "How do we control this behaviour?"
Instead, we ask: "What is this person experiencing, and what can we change to better support them?"
This may involve:
- Supporting caregivers and support teams
- Improving communication strategies
- Increasing predictability and consistency
- Addressing sensory needs
- Building emotional regulation skills
- Creating opportunities for meaningful choice and control
- Teaching replacement skills
- Reducing environmental stressors
The goal is not simply to reduce behaviours of concern. The goal is to help people feel safer, more understood, more connected, and better supported in everyday life.
When quality of life improves, behaviours of concern often reduce naturally.
Next steps
Working Together
Whether you are newly diagnosed, navigating complex support needs, experiencing burnout, working toward greater independence, or simply looking for support that aligns with your values, Positive Behaviour Support can help create meaningful change.