PCIT: How to help the parent interact with their child

The biggest fear of parents when referred to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is that the therapists will validate that the parent isn't good at parenting, so if the parent ever thinks the therapist is judging or blaming him or her, the therapy won't go well, said Melanie M. Nelson, Ph.D., presenting this topic at the AACAP last fall. “How would if feel if you were told you should go to parent training?” she said. “The message is that you need to go to remedial classes. So, we emphasize that we are working on specialized parenting, or therapeutic parenting.”