About this session

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based intervention for a wide variety of child mental, behavioral, and emotional challenges. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated through clinical research with thousands of families around the world for the past 40+ years. Children and families who participate in PCIT have stronger relationships, better emotion regulation, less parenting stress, decreased risk of abuse, and better psychosocial outcomes. PCIT is delivered in two phases, Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) and Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI), and is typically completed in about 12-20, 1-hour sessions. Unfortunately, a shortage of qualified providers and other barriers to treatment limit many families’ abilities to access this vital intervention. As a behavioral parent training approach, the goal of PCIT is simple: to train parents and caregivers to incorporate therapeutic skills into their everyday caregiving practices. Through this talk, participants will receive an introduction to this training. The basic therapeutic skills of CDI will be taught, modeled, and practiced in role play situations. The steps of PDI will be described and demonstrated through video modeling. Finally, options for further training and next steps for expanding the PCIT provider roster in Nebraska will be discussed.

Intended Audience: Anyone who interacts directly with children, especially:

• Caseworkers
• EDN providers
• Head Start personnel
• Early childhood educators
• Home visitors
• Medical/health and mental health professionals
• Service providers
• Family members

Learning objectives