About this course

Learning Objectives

• Identify at least two key indicators of mid-treatment plateau.
• Identify two strategies of decision-making used to adjust treatment plans in response to comorbid diagnoses, school-based barriers, and family system factors that complicate treatment trajectories.
• Evaluate alternative and/or additional treatment options for extended treatment plateaus.

Learning Levels

• All Levels

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Eleanor Ezell, LCSW

  Founder and Director, Child and Family Therapy Collective

  Eleanor Ezell, LCSW, is a licensed therapist in Tennessee and is the Founder and Clinical Director at Child and Family Therapy Collective based in Nashville, TN. She has extensive experience providing evidence-based therapy to children and young teens who struggle with selective mutism, anxiety, ADHD and disruptive behavior disorders, and a wide range of developmental delays.

  She attended New York University for graduate training where she trained with and worked very closely with Dr. Steven Kurtz over 5 years treating children with selective mutism and related disorders. She completed a two-year Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship at The University of Mississippi Medical Center where she also was personally grand funded to bring PCIT-SM and the Brave Buddies/Mighty Mouth Kids Camp model to the state of Mississippi. In the last 10 years, she has participated in, or replicated, intensive treatment in New York, California, Mississippi and soon will replicate in Tennessee. Eleanor currently runs the selective mutism program at Child and Family Therapy Collective in Nashville, TN where she offers weekly sessions, individual intensives and intensive group model treatment at Brave Camp.

• 

  Rachel Busman, PsyD, ABPP

  Senior Director Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Related Disorders Program

  Rachel Busman, PsyD, ABPP is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Senior Director of the Child & Adolescent Anxiety and Related Disorders Program at Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants (CBC). Dr. Busman has extensive experience working using evidence based treatments with children, teenagers, young adults and families struggling with anxiety disorders and other related mental health disorders. Dr. Busman has a specific interest and expertise in the evaluation and treatment of Selective Mutism and anxiety disorders in young children. She created and runs Voices Rising, an intensive SM treatment. Prior to joining CBC, Dr. Busman was the senior director of the Anxiety Disorders Center and Director of the Selective Mutism Service at the Child Mind Institute, in addition to the Director of Brave Buddies, an internationally recognized intensive program for children with Selective Mutism (SM). Dr. Busman is a former president of the Selective Mutism Association, the nation’s largest network of professionals, families, and individuals with selective mutism. She is certified in PCIT-SM and is a within agency trainer. Dr. Busman is also certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Psychology and Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.

• Alisa Gudz, PsyD

  Psychologist

  Alisa Gudz, PsyD., is a staff psychologist CBC where she conducts individual, family and group therapy with children, adolescents and adults with a range of clinical presentations. She is the coordinator of the PCIT and Child and Anxiety Related Disorders programs at CBC. She earned her Master’s Degree and Doctoral Degree in School Psychology from St. John’s University. Dr. Gudz previously earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Psychology from New York University.

  Dr. Gudz has extensive training in providing evidenced-based interventions to children, adolescents and adults with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, selective mutism, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, school refusal, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and various mood disorders. She is intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Dr. Gudz is a certified Parent-Child Interaction Therapist (PCIT) and a certified Parent-Child Interaction for Selective Mutism therapist (PCIT-SM).

  Dr. Gudz's doctoral research focused on school professional’s knowledge in working with students with selective mutism. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT).

References

• Douglas, S.R., et al. (2021). The Need for a Measurement-Based Care Professional Practice Guideline. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 52(6).
• Wu, M.S., Caporino, N.E., Peris, T.S., et al. (2020). The impact of treatment expectations on exposure process and treatment outcome in childhood anxiety disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(1), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13095
• Kendall, P.C., et al. (2023). Adapting CBT for youth anxiety: Flexibility, within fidelity, in different settings. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1067047.
• Rodrigues Pereira, C., Ensink, J. B. M., Güldner, M. G., Kan, K. J., de Jonge, M. V., Lindauer, R. J. L., & Utens, E. M. W. J. (2020). Effectiveness of a behavioral treatment protocol for selective mutism in children: Design of a randomized controlled trial. Contemporary clinical trials communications, 19, 100644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2020.100644
• Cotter, A., Todd, M., & Brestan-Knight, E. (2018). Parent–child interaction therapy for children with selective mutism (PCIT-SM). In Handbook of parent-child interaction therapy: Innovations and applications for research and practice (pp. 113-128). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Oerbeck, B., Overgaard, K. R., Stein, M. B., Pripp, A. H., & Kristensen, H. (2018). Treatment of selective mutism: A 5-year follow-up study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(8), 997–1009.