Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

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 you interact with your child through a one-way mirror and/or live video feed. 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 is done across two treatment phases. The first phase of treatment focuses on establishing warmth in your relationship with your child through learning and applying skills proven to help children feel calm, secure in their relationships with their parents, and good about themselves. The second phase of treatment will equip you to manage the most challenging of your child’s behaviors while remaining confident, calm, and consistent in your approach to discipline. In this phase, you will learn proven strategies to help your child accept your limits, comply with your directions, respect house rules, and demonstrate appropriate behavior in public.

• Child welfare-involved parents who are offered PCIT experience significant reductions in harmful parenting, increases in positive, responsive parenting, and declines in child behavior problems (Skowron, et. al, 2023).
• PCIT consistently yields significant gains in child maltreatment (CM) recidivism that are among the largest effects documented to date (i.e., d=1.09; Euser et al., 2015). Studies show that parents referred to child welfare for suspected physical abuse (either founded or unfounded) had a re-referral rate of less than 20% compared to 3–50% of re-referral rates (Chaffin, M. et. al, 2004).