Blog

When you seek out a doctor for yourself or your child, odds are, you’d like your doctor to be basing their interventions on research and evidence that has been validated in the field. Knowing that your doctor has surveyed the options for treatment and has chosen to proceed in a particular way because the research and knowledge available tells them that it will provide the best outcome is reassuring.

Parenting a child with greater social, emotional, or behavioral needs can be draining for caregivers, as these kids often need more support or create bigger challenges for the family throughout the day. When a child or teen is struggling, and families reach out for support from mental health professionals, the request is often for individual therapy focused on the child or adolescent to help them better regulate their emotions and behaviors. While it may be true that a child’s emotional and behavioral challenges are the root of a family system’s challenges, individual therapy is not always the primary or only recommendation for effective treatment.

The following is an interview with a real client at the Center for Effective Therapy who utilized Behavioral Parent Training to support their child who was struggling with big emotions and how to control his feelings.

In our world filled with constant access to information, it is increasingly more challenging to decipher what is accurate and what you can trust. Oftentimes, especially as busy people and working caregivers, we tend to lean heavily on popular new stories and social media algorithms for our sources of information. While these sources often have helpful and interesting information, sometimes they get science wrong.

When a child or adolescent is displaying hair-pulling behaviors that indicate the possibility of trichotillomania, early identification of symptoms and pursuing effective treatment with family support will set them on the right path.