Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a live coaching type of therapy that helps children from ages 2-7 regulate their emotions, listen to adults, and manage their behaviors better all while strengthening the bond between parents and children.
What makes PCIT different?
If you’ve ever seen the difference in how your child behaves at home versus in other settings and wished other people actually saw things from your perspective, PCIT addresses that exact concern. PCIT has a unique live coaching approach where a therapist guides parents through challenging parenting moments as they happen.
Therapy sessions take place over telehealth in the comfort of your own home using a camera on a personal device and a “bug in the ear” such as wireless earbuds. This set-up allows the therapist to experience the moment with you and provide live coaching through interactions with your child. Instead of worrying about whether or not the positive interactions and strategies will work the same way at home, telehealth PCIT builds around your home environment from the very start.
PCIT was developed for children ages 2 to 7. Your child does not need to have a specific diagnosis to start PCIT treatment, though it is a commonly recommended first-line treatment for parents of young children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). At Mind Study Center, our PCIT therapists provide trauma-informed PCIT that supports trauma recovery by helping children feel secure and understood, modeling healthier ways of handling feelings, and setting appropriate boundaries and consequences in a way that feels predictable and safe.
PCIT is effective in addressing the following concerns:
PCIT starts with a comprehensive intake, like all other therapies provided at Mind Study Center. In this initial session, your PCIT therapist will meet with you for a parents-only session to ask about your child’s developmental history, current concerns, and any other information about therapies or strategies that you have already tried.
The PCIT intake process also includes a pre-treatment observation. This will be completed over telehealth in your own home. The PCIT therapist will walk you through the process of setting up your chosen space, discuss appropriate toys, and help troubleshoot technology problems. In this structured observation, your PCIT therapist will give you specific prompts about how to set up the play situation. This provides opportunities to watch how you and your child typically interact in different situations and take note of any challenging behaviors that come up. Your PCIT therapist will turn their camera off during this time to limit distractions.
PCIT Phases of Treatment
PCIT involves two phases of treatment: Child-Directed Interaction and Parent-Directed Interaction.
Child-Directed Interaction
In the Child-Directed Interaction phase of PCIT, parents learn to use positive parenting skills while following their child’s lead. This phase is focused on building a secure, warm, and consistently positive parent-child relationship as the foundation for learning better ways of responding to difficult emotions, limit setting, and rule-following. When children feel safe, supported, and understood by their caregivers, they are more receptive to receiving guidance and limit setting. Parents also learn to shift how they view their child to focusing on their strengths and supporting their development.
Parent-Directed Interaction
In the Parent-Directed Interaction phase of PCIT, parents learn to use effective strategies for setting behavioral limits, give direct commands, and consistently apply appropriate consequences. Your therapist will work with your family on applying these strategies to common scenarios such as meal time, morning or evening routines, and sibling interactions. With PDI, parents learn to be confident, regain control in challenging situations, and stop power struggles that only create more negative emotions in the family. When parental expectations and appropriate consequences are consistent, children are also more regulated and cooperative.
