Specialized Programs - Mental Health in Early Childhood

Therapy: Individual & Family

Counseling, or therapy, involves a collaborative relationship between a therapist and an individual, family, or group, with the goal of problem resolution. The approach varies according to the client needs. The intent is to help the client or family change behavior or make decisions that will improve the quality of their life. Therapy is usually provided in a private office setting.

Some of our therapy services are evidence-informed or evidence-based. The term evidence-informed is used to design programs and activities using evidence to identify potential benefits, harm and also acknowledging that what works in one context may not work in another.  The term evidence-based treatment (EBT), evidence-based practice (EBP) or empirically-supported treatment (EST) refers to preferential use of mental and behavioral health interventions for which systematic empirical research has provided evidence of statistically significant effectiveness as treatments for specific problems. Child Focus, Inc. is proud to offer the following evidenced-informed or evidence-based treatments.

• Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT)
• Active Parenting Program 
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
• Incredible Years (IY)
• Nurturing Parent (NP)
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
• Positive Parenting Program (Triple P)
• Intensive Home-Based Therapy (IHBT)
• High-Fidelity Wraparound
• Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• The Seven Challenges
• Strengthening Families Program (SFP)
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)-Informed Treatment

Mental Health in Early Childhood

Child Focus has been providing Mental Health in Early Childhood services since the 1990’s and is considered a leader in the state in this area.  Classroom consultation provides early childhood teaching staff with tools necessary for working effectively with young children, focusing specifically on providing social-emotion supports in Head Start classrooms and child care classrooms in Clermont, Brown and Adams counties.  Specialists provide consultation to administrators, teachers, parents or other adults to recommend behavior modification strategies and to provide support or suggestions to better meet student needs.  Individual intervention/prevention services are offered for children who have been identified as being at risk for removal from the center due to severe behavioral difficulties. The Early Childhood Treatment team also offers diagnostic assessments, individual and family therapy, case management, psychological testing, and group therapy services.

Child Focus is also a recipient of the Ohio Mental Health & Addiction Services (OMHAS) Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant.  Through this grant, 2 consultants provide mental health consultation and professional development to early childhood programs in 16 counties in Southern Ohio.