Although Behavioral Parent Training Interventions (BPTs) have proven efficacy in the treatment of young children’s externalizing behavior problems, there is some evidence that BPTs have poorer engagement and outcomes for ethnic minority families. This may be due in part to mismatches between BPTs techniques and ethnic minority parents’ beliefs about the child’s problem causes, severity, course, and/or optimal treatment, also known as parent explanatory models (PEMs). This webinar will highlight a program developed to personalize Parent-Child Interaction Therapy designed to be responsive to particular parent explanatory models. Personalization is based on the assessment of modifiable, culturally-influenced PEM targets prior to the start of PCIT and the provision of corresponding tools to therapists to increase the cultural congruence of the intervention with relevant parent explanatory models. This type of method provides flexibility in the application of adaptations, tailored to the assessment of culturally-influenced constructs across racial/ethnic groups.

Treating professionals who work with selective mutism will benefit from learning empirically-derived strategies to personalize their treatments to families with culturally diverse backgrounds, especially when those backgrounds are different from their own.

Webinar My PCIT: A Personalized Version of PCIT for Culturally Diverse Families

Presenter: Kristen McCabe PhD, has a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Wayne State University and is currently a Professor of Psychology at the University of San Diego and Research Scientist at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady Children’s Hospital. She has been conducting research on PCIT with culturally diverse families for 18 years, and is currently the co-PI on an NIMH R34 focused on developing and testing a personalized version of PCIT for culturally diverse families. She is a certified Level 1 Trainer and provides PCIT training and supervision to clinical staff at Rady Children’s Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.

Moderator: Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP is the President of Kurtz Psychology Consulting PC, a NYC-based mental health group serving the emotional and behavioral needs of young children. He specializes in assessing and treating externalizing behaviors, such as ADHD and oppositionality, as well as severe anxiety behaviors, such selective mutism and social phobia. He is a Global Trainer in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and a dedicated advocate for children with special needs. His team has done pioneering work in Teacher-Child Interaction Treatment (TCIT) bringing behavioral coaching for teachers to a new level of effectiveness. Dr. Kurtz is the developer of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Adapted for Selective Mutism (PCIT-SM), an empirically supported therapy for selective mutism. He also created the renowned Mighty Mouth and Brave Buddies SM intensive treatment programs. An expert commentator, he has appeared on numerous programs addressing child mental health, including NBC’s Today, CBS’s The Early Show and PBS’s Keeping Kids Healthy and was featured in the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s ADD & Lovin’ It. He is a Board Certified Diplomate in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology and volunteers time in the leadership of numerous organizations such as the Selective Mutism Association.

This webinar was made possible by a generous grant from the Gordon and Marilyn Macklin Foundation, Inc.