About the Founders
Christian & Taylor Brown
Christian R. Brown and Taylor B. Brown are the Co-Founders of Brown’s Behavioral Institute, a behavioral research and training organization dedicated to advancing new frameworks for understanding human behavior and transforming how complex youth and mental health systems operate.
Their partnership is rooted in years of frontline work supporting youth and families facing some of the most complex behavioral and emotional challenges. Through their direct experience in residential care environments, crisis response settings, and community-based programs, they repeatedly encountered a common problem across systems of care: interventions were often built around containment, compliance, and surface-level behavior management, rather than genuine understanding of the needs driving behavior.
Together, they began developing new frameworks designed to move beyond reaction and toward insight-driven intervention. Their work focuses on helping professionals, caregivers, and organizations understand the emotional, relational, and environmental forces shaping behavior so that interventions can address root causes rather than simply managing symptoms.
Through their collaboration, Christian and Taylor co-developed the CARE-CRIES Model, a behavioral framework that explains how individuals often engage in Support Seeking behaviors when fundamental psychological needs become destabilized. By reframing challenging behaviors as attempts to elicit connection, recognition, agency, or emotional safety, the model provides caregivers and professionals with a clearer pathway for responding to distress and restoring stability.
At Brown’s Behavioral Institute, the Browns continue to develop behavioral models, professional training programs, and educational resources designed to help organizations move toward more humane, effective, and understanding-driven systems of care.
Together, their work reflects a shared belief that when behavior is understood correctly, intervention becomes more precise, more collaborative, and ultimately more transformative.
About Taylor B. Brown
Taylor B. Brown is the Co-Founder of Brown’s Behavioral Institute and a key architect behind several of the Institute’s behavioral frameworks, including the CARE-CRIES Model for understanding Support Seeking behaviors. Her expertise is grounded in years of direct frontline work with some of the nation’s highest-risk youth, where she developed deep practical insight into crisis behavior, trauma, and the relational dynamics that shape human action.
Taylor began her career working directly with youth experiencing complex behavioral, emotional, and environmental challenges. Rather than approaching these situations from a distance, she immersed herself in the realities of frontline care, supporting young people who had often been labeled “treatment resistant,” “oppositional,” or “high risk.” Through this work she developed a nuanced understanding of how behavior frequently functions as communication of unmet needs rather than simple defiance or dysfunction.
Her leadership and expertise eventually led her to serve as a Director for an award-winning mental health agency, where she helped guide innovative programming for youth and families facing the most complex behavioral challenges. In this role, Taylor led a Mental Health Crisis Response Team, coordinating interventions for individuals experiencing acute psychological distress while helping teams understand the deeper drivers of behavioral escalation.
One of the most groundbreaking aspects of Taylor’s work was her participation in an experimental residential support model, where she lived in residence alongside high-risk youth as part of an immersive care approach. By sharing the same living environment as the young people she supported, Taylor gained unprecedented insight into the relational patterns, environmental pressures, and emotional dynamics that shape behavior in real time. The lessons from this work have helped inform emerging models of complex youth care now influencing support approaches across the United States and Canada.
Drawing from these experiences, Taylor Brown co-developed the CARE-CRIES Model, a framework that reframes challenging behavior as Support Seeking. The model explains that when foundational needs for Connection, Agency, Recognition, and Emotional Safety become threatened, individuals often seek support indirectly through behaviors such as crisis escalation, refusal, emotional distress, or confrontation. Rather than viewing these behaviors as manipulation or attention-seeking, the CARE-CRIES model helps professionals recognize them as adaptive attempts to elicit response, protection, or relational stability.
Today, Taylor continues to help lead the mission of Brown’s Behavioral Institute, contributing to the development of training programs, behavioral models, and professional education that transform how caregivers, professionals, and organizations understand behavior. Her work reflects a core belief that when behavior is understood correctly, intervention becomes more compassionate, more precise, and far more effective.
About Christian R. Brown
Christian R. Brown is a behavioral specialist, best-selling author, and systems-level innovator whose work is helping reshape how mental health, youth care, and behavioral intervention are understood and practiced. As Co-Founder of Brown’s Behavioral Institute and Founder of Indigenous Youth Services, Christian has dedicated his career to advancing approaches that move beyond containment and compliance toward deeper understanding, collaboration, and lasting internal change.
Christian’s work sits at the intersection of behavioral science, trauma-informed care, and real-world practice. The frameworks he has developed were not created in isolation or purely academic settings. They emerged through years of frontline experience supporting youth and families in complex care environments, including residential programs, crisis response settings, and community support systems. Through this work, Christian gained firsthand insight into the emotional, relational, and environmental factors that shape behavior and the systemic limitations that often prevent meaningful change.
Guided by this experience, Christian began developing a series of original behavioral frameworks and intervention models designed to help professionals move beyond reactive crisis management and toward deeper behavioral understanding. His work emphasizes identifying the underlying drivers of behavior rather than focusing only on the visible actions, equipping caregivers and professionals with tools that clarify why behaviors emerge and how meaningful change can occur.
Christian is the developer of several influential models and conceptual frameworks that are now being integrated into training programs and professional development initiatives across the field. His writing and educational work focus on helping practitioners recognize the role of unmet psychological needs, environmental pressures, and relational dynamics in shaping behavior, and how collaborative approaches can produce more sustainable outcomes than control-based strategies.
In addition to his work as a model developer and educator, Christian is a best-selling author whose books explore behavioral analysis, trauma, and intervention through practical, accessible frameworks designed for parents, caregivers, and professionals alike. His work has been recognized through multiple awards and continues to influence conversations about how behavioral support systems can evolve.
Through Brown’s Behavioral Institute, Christian works alongside his wife and co-founder Taylor Brown to develop training programs, behavioral models, and educational resources that support professionals and organizations in building more humane, effective, and insight-driven systems of care. Together, their work reflects a shared belief that when behavior is understood clearly, intervention becomes not only more effective, but fundamentally more compassionate.
Best Seller
Author of Best-Selling Mental Health & Behavioral Science Books
Christian is the author of multiple best-selling titles that translate complex behavioral concepts into accessible, actionable guidance for caregivers, clinicians, educators, and families.
His books focus on decoding behavior, addressing trauma, strengthening caregiver capacity, and building systems that prioritize prevention over placement. Key titles include:
- Decoding Behavior: The A.I.M. Model for Behavioral Analysis and Intervention
- Therapeutic Investigations
- A.I.M for SucceSSful Parenting
- R.I.S.E: Cognitive Reframing Approaches to Trauma
Across his writing, Christian invites readers to move beyond labels and diagnoses and toward deeper inquiry. His work teaches practitioners how to identify emotional drivers, challenge entrenched narratives, and support genuine behavioral change rooted in understanding rather than enforcement.
Today, his books are used in professional training programs, agency development, and care environments, helping teams shift from reactive intervention toward compassionate, insight-based practice.
H.U.M.A.N.S Care Model
Developer of the H.U.M.A.N.S Care Model
In response to systemic abuse, neglect, and mistreatment within institutional care environments, Christian created the H.U.M.A.N.S Care Model, a comprehensive framework designed to restore humanity, accountability, and relational integrity to caregiving systems.
H.U.M.A.N.S integrates:
- Humanized care
- Understanding cultural and personal context
- Mapping emotional landscapes
- Anatomy of behavior
- Nurturing change through structured intervention
- Surpassing long-term support needs
The model directly challenges containment-based practices and requires organizations to examine their environments, not just youth behavior. It emphasizes dignity, emotional safety, cultural awareness, and internalized growth, guiding both direct care and organizational reform.
For Christian, H.U.M.A.N.S represents both professional innovation and moral responsibility: ensuring that care never becomes dehumanization disguised as intervention.
Founder of Collaborative Dialogics
Christian also developed Collaborative Dialogics with his wife, Taylor B Brown, a guided conversational framework that places partnership at the center of care.
Collaborative Dialogics moves away from directive, authority-based engagement and toward structured collaboration. It supports professionals in:
- Establishing emotional safety
- Building authentic rapport
- Exploring both the perceived benefits and hidden costs of behavior
- Weighing alternatives together
- Supporting intrinsic motivation
- Helping individuals arrive at insight rather than being told what to do
This approach forms the relational foundation of Christian’s broader behavioral ecosystem, allowing A.I.M., H.U.M.A.N.S, and the Three S’s of Intervention to function effectively in real-world settings.
At its core, Collaborative Dialogics reflects Christian’s belief that meaningful change happens with people, not to them.
Award Winning
Presented by the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, this national award recognizes meaningful contributions to mental health practice and advocacy. Christian was honored for innovative, relationship-centered approaches that prioritize dignity, individualized care, and sustainable change for youth and families navigating complex systems.
This recognition highlights his leadership in advancing models that replace reactive intervention with deeper understanding and collaborative support.
The Canadian Choice Award recognizes excellence and leadership in innovation and service delivery. Christian received this honor for his influence in reshaping how complex behavior is understood and supported across communities, agencies, and care environments.
The award reflects confidence in his professional integrity and in the real-world impact of his behavioral frameworks, training programs, and systems-level advocacy.
Christian was also honored with the Global Recognition Award, acknowledging the international relevance of his contributions to behavioral theory, trauma-informed care, and system reform.
This award recognizes work that demonstrates measurable impact beyond regional boundaries, affirming that Christian’s models resonate globally with professionals seeking alternatives to institutional and containment-based approaches.