• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

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    Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a short-term, evidence-based treatment for children with behavioral challenges. Believing that parent-child interactions are essential to supporting the development of regulatory skills, PCIT utilizes a coaching framework to strengthen family relationships.

    PCIT can help with:

    • Anxiety disorders
    • Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
    • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
    • Emotional dysregulation
    • Low frustration tolerance
    • Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
    • Other disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs)
    • Selective mutism

    An evidenced-based treatment, research has found PCIT to be a gold standard family treatment. Some of the reasons why include: (1) 50+ years of research showing it works, (2) lasting gains, (3) generalizability of skills to other settings, and (4) its inclusion of all the key elements that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deems essential to helping caregivers with disruptive children.

    PCIT skills facilitate:

    • Correct use of safe time-out practices
    • Developing a united parenting approach
    • Effective discipline
    • Increasing positive familial feelings
    • Limit setting
    • Parental confidence
    • Real-time parental feedback
    • Reinforcing and supporting parental consistency
    • Teaching emotional communication skills

    With PCIT you will create a warm relationship with your child(ren) and learn vital skills that leave you feeling equipped to manage the most challenge behaviors through two separate treatment phases.

     

    Benefits of Phase 1:

    Decreased

    • Activity levels
    • Frequency, severity, and/or duration of tantrums
    • Negative attention seeking behaviors (e.g., whining)
    • Parental frustration

    Increased

    • Attention
    • Feelings of security, safety, and attachment to caregiver(s)
    • Pro-social behaviors (e.g., sharing)
    • Self-esteem

    Benefits of Phase 2:

    Decreased

    • Defiance
    • Destructive behaviors
    • Frequency, severity, and/or duration of aggressive behaviors

    Increased

    • Compliance
    • Disciplinary confidence
    • Parental calmness
    • Respect for house rules

    Parent-Child Interaction Therapy goes beyond increasing a caregiver’s knowledge and skills through informed clinical techniques to enhancing a families ability to connect and respect one another and others.

    If you or someone you know would benefit from caregiver support, please contact me today and we can begin to developing strategies together.