Child Services at MCG: Specialized Therapy for Children

Parent-Child-Interaction-Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based, short term treatment model, that has been found to be effective for young children (ages 2-7) struggling with emotional and behavioral challenges, non-compliance, impulsivity and anxiety.

This dyadic intervention empowers parents and caregivers by teaching new skills and providing live coaching to enhance parent-child relationship, increase child’s emotional regulation, compliance and reduce anxiety. 

PCIT is conducted through "coaching" sessions during which you and your child are in a playroom while the therapist is in an observation room watching your interaction through a one-way mirror. You wear a "bug-in-the-ear" device through which the therapist provides in-the-moment coaching on skills you are learning to manage your child's behavior. 

PCIT aims to shape negative behaviors into positive interaction patterns; it provides parents and caregivers with skills that promote warmth and supportive communication within the relationship, proven skills to help children feel calmer, secured and develop positive self-esteem.

In addition, parents learn effective and safe discipline strategies that reduce defiance and increase cooperation and compliance.    

Research shows impressive outcomes and gains lasting for years.  Some expected outcomes are:

Decreased frequency and severity of tantrums and aggressive behavior

Decreased defiance

Increased attention span

Stronger self-esteem

Improved behavior in public

Increase in pro-social behaviors

Parental calmness and confidence while parenting and disciplining

Dialectical Behavior Therapy for children and pre-adolescents is an empirically supported adaptation of DBT. DBT-C is an intervention developed to treat children ages 6-13 years old, struggling with emotional and behavioral dysregulation.

DBT-C begins with an extensive parent-training component, followed by weekly family therapy sessions and/or individual sessions with the child. Sessions focus on building, practicing and reinforcing new coping skills to achieve emotional and behavioral regulation.

DBT-C teaches parents everything their child learns; coping skills, problem-solving, didactics on emotions, in addition to effective contingency management and validation techniques. DBT-C aims to teach parents how to create a validating and change ready environment to help them become coaches for their child during treatment and after therapy is completed, teach parents and their children effective coping and problem-solving skills; and help parents instill in their children a sense of self-love, safety and belonging.

Families receive individualized attention as they work together to improve upon and practice their skills with the support of an experienced clinician.

SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems. SPACE aims to treat children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although children do not have to attend SPACE sessions - they are the patients! When SPACE treatment is successful children feel less anxious and function better following treatment.

Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:

• Separation anxiety

• Social anxiety

• Generalized anxiety

• Fears and phobias

• Panic disorder and Agoraphobia

• Selective mutism

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

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The best treatment for specific phobias is a form of psychotherapy called exposure therapy. Sometimes we recommend other therapies. Understanding the cause of a phobia is actually less important than focusing on how to treat the avoidance behavior that has developed over time.

The goal of treatment is to improve quality of life so that you're no longer limited by your phobias. As you learn how to better manage and relate to your reactions, thoughts and feelings, you'll find that your anxiety and fear are reduced and no longer in control of your life. Treatment is usually directed at one specific phobia at a time.

Exposure Therapy focuses on changing your response to the object or situation that you fear. Gradual, repeated exposure to the source of your specific phobia and the related thoughts, feelings and sensations may help you learn to manage your anxiety. For example, if you're afraid of elevators, your therapy may progress from simply thinking about getting into an elevator, to looking at pictures of elevators, to going near an elevator, to stepping into an elevator. Next, you may take a one-floor ride, then ride several floors, and then ride in a crowded elevator.

Coping Cat is a cognitive-behavioral treatment for children with anxiety. The program incorporates 4 components:

• Recognizing and understanding emotional and physical reactions to anxiety

• Clarifying thoughts and feelings in anxious situations

• Developing plans for effective coping

• Evaluating performance and giving self-reinforcement

The essential components of the Coping Cat program include: -

• Psychoeducation, involving information for children and families about how anxiety can develop and be maintained, and how it can be treated

• Exposure tasks, which give the child the chance to be in the feared situation and have a mastery experience

• Somatic management, which teaches relaxation techniques

• Cognitive restructuring which addresses FEAR: Feeling frightened, expecting bad things, attitudes and actions that will help, and results and rewards

• Problem solving to generate and evaluate specific actions for dealing with problems

Pediatric OCD is best treated by using a type of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) called exposure and response prevention (ERP):

In ERP, kids learn to face their fears (exposure) without giving in to compulsions (response prevention).

A licensed mental health professional (such as a psychologist, social worker, or counselor) will guide them through this process, and children will learn that they can allow the obsessions and anxiety to come and go without the need for their compulsions or rituals.

Psychiatric medication may be considered if the child’s symptoms are very severe and/or not helped by ERP alone.

A specific kind of antidepressants known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) have been found to be helpful in reducing OCD symptoms in children and teens, making ERP easier to do and more effective.

Medications should only be prescribed by a licensed medical professional (such as your pediatrician or a psychiatrist) who has experience working with kids and teens and would ideally work together with your therapist to develop a treatment plan.

Taken together, ERP and medication are considered the “first-line” treatments for OCD. In other words, START HERE! About 70 percent of people will benefit from ERP and/or medication for their OCD.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents impacted by trauma and their parents or caregivers. Research shows that TF-CBT successfully resolves a broad array of emotional and behavioral difficulties associated with single, multiple and complex trauma experiences.

TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment that has been evaluated and refined during the past 25 years to help children and adolescents recover after trauma. Currently, 21 randomized controlled trials have been conducted in the U.S., Europe and Africa, comparing TF-CBT to other active treatment conditions. All of these studies have documented that TF-CBT was superior for improving children’s trauma symptoms and responses. TF-CBT is a structured, short-term treatment model that effectively improves a range of trauma-related outcomes in 8-25 sessions with the child/adolescent and caregiver. Although TF-CBT is highly effective at improving youth posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and diagnosis, a PTSD diagnosis is not required in order to receive this treatment. TF-CBT also effectively addresses many other trauma impacts, including affective (e.g., depressive, anxiety), cognitive and behavioral problems, as well as improving the participating parent’s or caregiver’s personal distress about the child’s traumatic experience, effective parenting skills, and supportive interactions with the child.

MATCH-ADTC is an evidence-based treatment designed for children ages 6 - 15. Unlike most treatment approaches that focus on single disorders, MATCH is designed to treat four common behavioral health concerns among children, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and behavior problems.

MATCH-ADTC is comprised of 33 modules representing treatment components that are frequently included in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols for depression, anxiety including post-traumatic stress, and behavioral parent training for disruptive behavior. Based on the child's primary concern, treatment is sequentially organized and flexible in order to tailor treatment to each child's specific characteristics and needs. on