Combining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Parent-Child Interaction Therapy when working with a Child with Serious Behavioral Problems.

The Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a well-established therapy for children's behavioral problems. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) combined with PCIT may improve outcomes of the intervention, since this combination of therapies can facilitate parental and child adherence to treatment and may also improve the effectiveness of PCIT in children older than 7 years old. In this paper, we present a clinical case of a 10-year-old boy with an oppositional defiant disorder, who has had disruptive high-frequency behavior for more than 6 months. An AB single case design with repeated measures in follow-up was used. We evaluated an intervention that involved PCIT and ACT, that was applied to the child and his parents. The intervention was carried out during 11 sessions, and follow-up measures at 3, 6, and 12 months. The results show that the treatment was effective to eliminate serious behavioral problems and increase pro-social behaviors. These results were maintained in the 12-month follow-up. The current study provides evidence of the treatment that involved PCIT and ACT in a boy older than 7 years old who had oppositional defiant disorder.