Counselor's Corner

Definitions

Click on a title to learn more about it's meaning.

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

  What is EMDR: emdr.com/what-is-emdr

  Video: youtube.com/watch?v=1IPsBPH2M1U

• Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (AMSR)

  Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (AMSR)

  Relaxation Techniques

• Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)

  Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)

  Suicide Assessment & Guidance for Evaluation & Treatment Options

• Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

  Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

  Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is an intervention for children from birth through age 5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event (e.g., maltreatment, the sudden or traumatic death of someone close, a serious accident, sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence) and, as a result, are experiencing behavior, attachment, and/or mental health problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The primary goal of CPP is to support and strengthen the relationship between a child and his or her parent (or caregiver) as a vehicle for restoring the child's sense of safety, attachment, and appropriate affect and improving the child's cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning.

  The type of trauma experienced and the child's age or developmental status determine the structure of CPP sessions. For example, with infants, the child is present, but treatment focuses on helping the parent to understand how the child's and parent's experience may affect the child's functioning and development. With older children, including toddlers, the child is a more active participant in treatment, and treatment often includes play as a vehicle for facilitating communication between the child and parent. When the parent has a history of trauma that interferes with his or her response to the child, the therapist (a master's- or doctoral-level psychologist, a master's-level social worker or counselor, or a supervised trainee) helps the parent understand how this history can affect perceptions of and interactions with the child and helps the parent interact with the child in new, developmentally appropriate ways.

• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

  Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

  “Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)" is an empirically-supported treatment for young children with emotional and behavioral disorders that places emphasis on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship and changing parent-child interaction patterns. PCIT International was created to promote fidelity in the practice and training of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy through well-conducted research, training, and continuing education of therapists and trainers. By creating an interface between the scholarly activities of PCIT researchers and the expertise of front-line clinicians, PCIT International promotes healthy family functioning.

  PCIT outcome research has demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvements in the conduct-disordered behavior of preschool age children: After treatment, children’s behavior is within the normal range. Studies have documented the superiority of PCIT to wait list controls and to parent group didactic training. In addition to significant changes on parent ratings and observational measures of children’s behavior problems, outcome studies have demonstrated important changes in the interactional style of the fathers and mothers in play situations with the child. Parents show increases in reflective listening, physical proximity, and pro-social verbalization, and decreases in sarcasm and criticism of the child after completion of PCIT. Outcome studies have also demonstrated significant changes on parents’ self-report measures of psychopathology, personal distress, and parenting locus of control. Measures of consumer satisfaction in all studies have shown that parents are highly satisfied with the process and outcome of treatment at its completion.

  PCIT draws on both attachment and social learning theories to achieve authoritative parenting. Attachment theory asserts that sensitive and responsive parenting provides the foundation for the child’s sense of knowing that he or she will be responded to when necessary. Thus, young children whose parents show greater warmth, responsiveness, and sensitivity to the child’s behaviors are more likely to develop a secure sense of their relationships and more effective emotional and behavioral regulation. For this reason, in the first phase of PCIT parents learn the Child-Directed Interaction (CDI), which aims to restructure the parent-child relationship and provide the child with a secure attachment to his or her parent. Social learning theories emphasize the contingencies that shape the interactions of children and their parents. Patterson’s coercion theory provides a transactional account of early conduct-disordered behavior in which child conduct problems are inadvertently established or maintained by the parent-child interactions. Thus, in the second phase of PCIT parents learn the Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI), which specifically addresses these processes by establishing consistent contingencies for child behavior.”