Parent-Child Interaction Therapy.
(a.k.a. PCIT)
What is PCIT?
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is an evidenced based practice for parents that have children who have experienced trauma and/or are experiencing difficult behavioral challenges. It helps to create a positive relationship between the parent and child, while also providing the parent with skills to help manage those difficult behaviors.
How does it work?
PCIT has 2-parts.
The first part of PCIT focuses on helping the parent to increase their positive and supportive communication with their child, while also learning to “actively ignore” their child’s undesired behaviors. This is achieved through the therapist (me!) teaching the parent what is known as the “PRIDE skills” and then providing real-time coaching of these skills as well as active ignoring during “special playtime” in therapy. The therapist will ask the parent to practice these skills daily outside of session by having 5-minutes of special playtime with their child. Once the PRIDE skills are mastered, the therapist moves to the second part.
The second part focuses on helping the parent to use effective skills to manage their child’s behavior. The main skill here is learning how to give effective commands by learning how to “BE DIRECT”. The therapist will also support the parent in learning how to implement “natural and logical consequences” when their child engages in an undesired behavior, which is typically either a removal of privileges or time-out. Other strategies will also be provided depending on the need, such as - learning how to set house rules, presenting choices for the child, modelling appropriate behavior, contingency management, supporting transitions, “redoing”, overcorrection, and redirection (if you’re feeling overwhelmed - don’t worry - I got this!).
Who is it for?
Children ages 3-7 that have experienced trauma and/or have challenging behaviors.
Possible Traumas: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, car accident, dog bite, divorce, loss of loved one, severe illness, witnessing violence, going through a natural disaster - or any other life threatening or scary event. Please note that trauma is any event that exceeds our ability to cope and trauma will try to convince you not to seek help by saying “it’s not that bad.”
Challenging Behaviors: difficulty in school or other environments, aggression towards self or others, talking back to authority figures, refusing to listen to rules, intense temper tantrums, etc.
Parents that are feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious/depressed, guilty, and confused about how to manage their child’s behavior.
