Parent Child Interaction Therapy

At New Patterns Child Psychology Clinic, we are committed to helping parents create a healthy family life for themselves and their children.

Our parent-child relationship therapy program, Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is specifically created for young children (ages 2-7) and their caregivers.

PCIT is a very specialized program and is found nowhere else in Western Australia

PCIT improves the quality of the parent-child relationship by fostering positive and nurturing interactions. The program also teaches parents techniques to manage and reduce problematic child behaviours.

There are two parts to PCIT:

Phase One

Building warm, secure caregiver-child relationships, through play-based interactions.

Phase Two

The treatment aims to improve child behaviour and increase parent’s ability to effectively deal with child behavior. PCIT incorporates real-time coaching as parents interact with their child during this play-based and behaviourally focused intervention.

• Tantrums
• Aggression (e.g., hitting, biting, pinching)
• Fussiness (e.g., screaming, whining, crying)
• Anger / frustration
• Attachment difficulties (e.g., rejection of parent, difficult to comfort)
• Separation anxiety or withdrawal from parent
• Developmental concerns (e.g., language problems)
• Child abuse and neglect
• Parental stress (e.g., anxiety, dissatisfaction, difficulty coping, lack of confidence)