It has been such a pleasure and rewarding experience working with Celine. She has held my hand through many trying moments that any parent at some point has experienced. When my daughter was born I knew sleep training her was one of the things that was going to be on the top of my priority list of what fight I wanted to fight. And for 3 years my husband and I did an amazing job at it. After 2 moves in 6 months, and a few other changes, all of sudden it was impossible to get her to sleep without an hour of the nightly stalling.
No matter what we did, we couldn’t get back to that comfortable place of smooth night time routine. After months of struggling, I finally reached out to Celine, and all it took was 1 long phone conversation and implementation of everything she instructed us to do. 3 days later we were back on track!
Now months later, we are still on the smooth night time routine and all is well again. It is so comforting to have the option of someone like Celine who is so caring, knowledgeable and passionate, to help us when we come across some bumps in the road. She is an incredibly sweet person and amazing at what she does!
Marina Kurian
(Parent/Business Owner)
2017
She demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of early childhood development and displayed natural teaching skills… She exhibited a tremendous amount of compassion and empathy for the children and families.
Lisa Bartram, LCSW/MSW
(Newton Creative Start, Communities United)
2004
Parenting is challenging and exhausting but having Celine on your Team is like being able to pull out a Swiss Army knife that can instantly offer you multiple tools when you’re stuck on a deserted island and quickly losing hope. As an attentive, communicative, experienced childhood development professional, Celine’s passion for working with kids is evident in everything she does.
Whether singing, dancing, drawing or modeling behavior, Celine’s creativity knows no bounds when it comes to providing actionable tools for both parent and child. A strong advocate of visual scheduling, Celine’s customized, illustrated to-do lists are simple and fun for preschoolers to check off. She has equipped us with tools on everything from curbing what seems to be the beginning of an epic tantrum to smoothly transitioning between activities by offering clear, limited choices.
Celine doesn’t see obstacles and problems. She sees opportunities for change and growth. And it’s that kind of infectious positivity that every parent can use just a little more of.
Taleen Gilmour
(Parent)
2020
Celine is amazing and always finds a way to go above and beyond! She is an incredibly smart, compassionate and passionate problem solver. She has unparalleled insight and empathy.
Celine is not just a child advocate; but a FAMILY advocate. We Love her and couldn’t recommend her more!!!!
Seta Atamian
(Parent)
2020
Celine worked with one of my day program individuals. She was very invested and reliable. She was always willing to brainstorm with me and bounce different ideas back and forth. I truly believe it takes collaborative teamwork when working with individuals with ID/DD. She’s assertive and has a drive to see positive and meaningful change.
She is able to acknowledge the small steps and continue the work with the client for even larger outcomes. Importantly, Celine works with meaning and heart.
Taryn Flanagan
(Program Director- Beaverbrook STEP, Inc.)
2020
Celine is very friendly, open, honest, and thorough. She immediately put me at ease when we started to discuss things, which allowed me to be more open. It is sometimes difficult to communicate thoughts effectively.
Celine really helped me to slow down, think about what I was saying or what was being said to me, and to better formulate my thoughts as well as my responses. I have seen dramatic improvements in the line of communication with my colleagues and personal relationships.
Celine really helped me to be more direct and more understanding without taking everything personally. It is really refreshing whenever I consult things with her. Thanks Celine!
Nina Ohl
(Business Owner)
2019
My impression of Celine as an individual is caring, determined, honest, loving, smart, calm and kind hearted. She is just awesome and everyone old or young gravitates to her naturally. She is always finding a solution or alternative to any problem. And if that doesn’t work, she will keep trying other ways. Very determined to solve and find a way that works for someone tailored to their situation.
I experienced positive changes from her consulting support with my own daughter. In getting her to speak clearly, she taught me to get her to ask for what she wants by verbally telling me exactly what it is, instead of her repeating, “again.” Also to get down to her eye level and speak to her in a calmer way instead of getting flustered.
Allina Nazaryan
(Parent)
2019
I have worked with Celine for several years while she worked for PJ Reindeer. She has always been a delight to work with and has always conducted herself in a very professional manner.
Celine has a high level of compassion and a great passion for her work. She has always worked well with everyone in a friendly manner and treats everyone with respect. She always worked hard to provide a successful outcome to any situation while supporting an individual in the company setting.
Celine developed a tailored work routine and monitored the performance of the staff member she was assigned to. She also was very good in facilitating social interactions in the work place better than anyone else on the staff.
Celine trained job coaches, developed materials for daily routines and job coaching which helped provide consistent procedures amongst various job coaches. She was always consistent, reliable and adaptable in all situations. It was always a pleasure to work with Celine. She was a valued member of our team.
Diana Sabatini
(Manager of Executive Administration)
2020
Celine is a highly competent, dedicated individual, who provided job support to adult workers with disabilities in work sites at Boston College. She was extremely sensitive to the individual needs of the workers and consequently was able to provide responsive job support interventions…
Celine consistently sought to ensure that workers participated in university training, social events and incentive programs. She advocated for inclusion of the worker in all aspects of the University community. I believe Celine will be an asset to any human services organization. She is a bright, dedicated, proactive team player who has much to offer.
Don Ricciato
(Director- Boston College Campus School)
2008
The child with whom Celine works requires full-time adult support. Celine is responsible for supporting this student’s curriculum, assisting with her activities of daily living (ADL) skills, communicating with her family and other team members participating in carrying out her Individual Educational Plan (IEP), and learning how to incorporate therapeutic goals into her daily home program.
She encourages increased independence for the child in an ongoing way and incorporates good humor. Most importantly, Celine facilitates greater ongoing social interactions by working with peers and adults in the school community to support the student’s language strengths and to teach others about differences and similarities. She insures that proper greetings are exchanged when traveling to and from the classroom and answers peers questions in a clear, factual and normalizing manner.
Celine accomplishes all of these activities with grace, skill, enthusiasm, confidentiality and creativity. She is a joy to know! Celine has a good understanding of behavior management techniques and knows the benefits of Occupational, Physical, and Speech/Language therapies, as well as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles, and hippo therapy. She is a good collaborator and follows up on the specialists’ suggestions. Celine serves as a role model for the inclusion philosophy and practice at the Children’s School.
Maryann O’Brien
(Associate Director/Special Rights Coordinator, Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, Tufts University)
2006
Celine’s dedication and vision went far beyond the job description of Senior Job Coach. In her role as Human Rights Officer, she greatly enhanced the workers knowledge of their rights by creating a new improved handbook, with state of the art graphics and more comprehensive information. She addressed various human rights concerns, such as inclusion, privacy, health, safety, respect, and tools for self-advocacy.
Celine also expanded her case management services to introduce basic computer skills to individuals who had no prior experience. She helped insure consumer’s confidentiality by instituting lockers for onsite program information. Celine developed a PowerPoint presentation to orient and educate student job coaches in supporting the workers on the job.
Mary Brown
(Program Coordinator- Boston College Supported Employment Program)
2000
I had the opportunity to receive parental coaching from Celine Abkar. I can honestly say that a result of her trainings and coaching, I underwent a major transformation as a mother. Celine’s trainings did more than just help me understand the importance of behavior, she gave me practical tools for implementing new critical thinking and comprehension strategies that directly led to many developmental milestones in my children.
Working with Celine has been one of the best decisions I have made for my boys. I continue to consistently receive the best counseling: good advice on ideas that can be used for the whole family, how to implement plans and when to pull back from plans when no longer effective. I have also received insight to help us manage the schools and their plans with my kids. I could go on and on! Celine is a great listener and a genuine person. My children will forever have her in their hearts.
Selin Asatourians
(Parent)
2019
I worked with Celine for a couple of years, as a member of a private educational team for a family in Massachusetts with an individual with severe cognitive impairments. Celine was always extremely reliable, understanding, and compassionate towards the individual we both worked with.
Celine also had an immense amount of knowledge about increasing this individual’s independence both in the community, as well as in the home, in order to further development and success. She would implement behavior plans, as well as write plans of her own for the educational team to follow. She would share tips that worked with that individual to ensure positive behavior techniques were being provided, as well as support new staff in the training process when hired. Celine was wonderful to work with, and given the opportunity in the future, I would work with her again.
Colleen Thomas
(Special Education Teacher)
2020
I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about my overall experience working with Celine Abkar. Actually, it’s about how Celine has worked with my daughter Natalie, for many, many years, in varying capacities. Celine started out as a young professional who was very interested in making a positive impact on people with disabilities. Caring for Natalie and helping her with her daily routines, applying ABA techniques she learned from BCBA experts. Over the years, even after she had moved on to other academic and professional pursuits, Celine remained in contact with Natalie, visiting her and taking her to church on occasion. She maintained contact with Natalie when she went back to her home town in the Los Angeles area.
When Celine moved back to the Boston area to build her clientele, she worked very closely with Natalie and her new day program. Celine trained many staff members on job coaching Natalie and interacted with Natalie’s colleagues at her professional job site. She developed programs for both work and in-community and trained all staff in those environments. All who interacted with Celine, commented on how kind, patient and compassionate she was.
In addition, Celine assisted during life transitions, attending IEP and ISP meetings and implementing associated goals and objectives. Celine participated in medical appointments, often providing expert input to Natalie’s development and medical condition. She accompanied the family on vacations and various other family events and holidays.
Celine is a remarkable and gifted professional who is a passionate educator and trainer, dedicated to those individuals with disabilities. She is steadfast on the celebration of differences among people and her soft heart and highly competent skillset allow her to be very effective to drive results and success in the development of programs for these individuals.
I would highly recommend Celine to any professional program or family in need of such a professional.
Doug Atamian
(Parent/CEO)
2020