Practical, Heart-of-the-Issue, Family Therapy
Support for parents and children for the challenges of life
Being a child is a special time when you are learning about yourself, others, and the world around you. There is so much to be curious about, explore, and make sense of. It is also a time when your body is growing, language is developing, social skills are evolving, and your capacity to cope and make sense of the world is a work in progress. It doesn’t take much to feel unsure, overwhelmed, stressed, or unseen.
For young children, the challenges of growing up tend to be expressed through emotional and behavioral distress. They don’t yet have the ability to understand and organize their experiences and then articulate them to caregivers.
Instead, stress can play out as protests, tantrums or defiance, struggles with processing emotions, difficulty with focus, transitions, separation, or withdrawing from others/school/activities. Stress can be also expressed through jealousy, attention seeking, or aggression. For some children, it can appear as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, or developmental delays.
These difficulties can be incredibly stressful for parents and/or caregivers and lead to conflict or fractured relationships, misses in communication, and further distress for everyone. It can also cause issues between caregivers where they have different ideas or strategies for navigating the distress.
An Effective Toolbox
Get to the root of the struggle
You don’t have to be alone as a parent
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) focuses on getting at the heart of what is causing the behavior so it can be dealt with directly and the behavioral or emotional symptoms are no longer needed. It is designed to help you find more delight, increased confidence, and less stress as a parent/caregiver as you understand what your child is asking for during moments of need and ways to effectively support them through challenges.
If you have ever experienced the struggle of feeling exhausted or overwhelmed as a parent, drained from the battles with challenging behavior, anxiety or doubt about your parenting approach, the pain of not knowing how best to support your child, or simply wanting additional skills for addressing some current challenges before they turn into bigger issues, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy can help.
Even the most skillful parents can benefit from support and specialized assistance to guide their children through new, unfamiliar, or challenging times.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is an evidence-based, experiential, and practical approach, supporting parents/caregivers to address emotional or behavioral distress as it organically arises in session. The parent wears a listening device so they can listen to support and guidance throughout the session.
Practical Support
Guidance when you need it the most
Real-world, effective solutions
With your PCIT-trained therapist by your side, you can practice new skills and strategies in real-time, strategies that calm emotions, enhance your connection, and have a long-lasting impact on behavior.
It is a unique approach in that it is both child and parent-lead (rather than focusing on the relationship between the therapist and child), tailored to meet your specific needs, and designed to give you everything you need to be successful in handling the demands of life long after therapy has ended.
Families often observe improvements in their connection, social skills and level of cooperation, and their ability to collectively move through previously challenging moments. They also notice a reduction in emotional and behavioral symptoms, conflict, and stress levels for all family members.
PCIT offers space for parents/caregivers to meet with the therapist alone to process sessions, make sense of what is working and why it is working, and get support for the demands of parenthood.
You don’t have to be alone, raising little people to successfully navigate the complexities and challenges of life is the hardest job there is. We look forward to being by your side.
PCIT
Registered PCIT International Training Site
We specialize in PCIT
We are proud to be a registered PCIT International training site, allowing us to offer high-quality PCIT services. We are able to train our staff in this model and offer ongoing PCIT supervision ensuring you have a skilled and focused therapist working alongside you.
The PCIT training model is just as practical and experiential for the therapist-in-training as the therapy model is for parents.
Therapists who are working towards PCIT certification offer co-therapy with our PCIT trainer-in-training, Amanda Kelsheimer, LCSW. This allows them to develop their skills directly from a highly skilled PCIT therapist, live in the room.
All of our therapists are already trained in working with children and families and are invested in adding PCIT to their existing clinical skills and offerings. We value our staff being grounded in well-researched, evidence-based models of care.
Some of our PCIT trainees are Licensed and some are Residents who have completed their master’s degree and are now working towards the clinical and supervision requirements for licensure.
If you are open to working with therapists-in-training, you get the benefit of working with two family therapists. As Parent-Child Therapy progresses, the PCIT trainee will start to lead sessions, showing video to the trainer throughout and getting active supervision, feedback, and support to ensure they are following the PCIT model.
You are also welcome to work with a certified provider only, with no trainees involved in services if you would prefer.
Our Intake Coordinator will be happy to answer any questions you may have about working with a therapist-in-training and help you decide if this would be a good fit for your family.