Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

When children act out persistently so that it causes serious problems at home, in school, or with peers, they may be diagnosed with ODD. For younger children, the treatment with the strongest evidence is behavior therapy training for parents, where a therapist helps the parent learn effective ways to strengthen the parent-child relationship and respond to the child’s behavior. Dr. Edwards provides behavioral parent training online.

If you’re a parent of a toddler or preschooler, you might be feeling stuck in the daily power struggles and lost in the sea of conflicting parenting information about what to do. If you're an expecting or new parent, you might be struggling to manage your own stress, anxiety, or sleep problems. It is not uncommon for me to hear parents say, “I love my child, but it’s hard, because everything’s a fight.” A strategy session may be all you need to recalibrate a starting point and find your footing.

I love working with "naughty" children. Not because I enjoy seeing parents stressed out - I understand how taxing it can be to parent a strong willed child. Rather, I love working with these families because I have seen over and over again the radical shift in parents lives when they learn PCIT and how to channel their child's defiance against them into resilience and perseverance with them. "Naughtiness" is just a sign that peace and warmth can come back to the family with PCIT.

You noticed the increasing presence of heightened emotions, refusal to follow directions, constant arguing, and difficulty getting along with others. Your child is easily frustrated and becomes angry on a daily basis. I work to resolve behavioral and emotional difficulties by identifying the source and creating a plan for your child to engage in effective communication, control negative impulses, manage anger responses, and increase compliance.

You noticed the increasing presence of heightened emotions, refusal to follow directions, constant arguing, and difficulty getting along with others. Your child is easily frustrated and becomes angry on a daily basis. I work to resolve behavioral and emotional difficulties by identifying the source and creating a plan for your child to engage in effective communication, control negative impulses, manage anger responses, and increase compliance.

I am trained to help children and parents with this disorder

I have worked for over a year with adolescents and families with an ODD diagnosis. Behavioral interventions, parent-child interaction therapy, and parenting classes are some of what I provide for my clients.

ODD can be a very difficult diagnosis for any child or parent. Understanding it is important for the child or adolescent to succeed. I have experience working with children with ODD and helping them thrive at home, in the community and at school. I believe if we help the child to express their needs, appropriately and allow them to have personal power while cooperating in structured environments both the child and overall family will succeed.

I am trained and certified in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), which is for 2-7 year old's that may display anger/aggression, ADHD symptoms, and oppositional to commands. PCIT is an evidenced based model, which yields high success when utilized.

I have been trained in curriculums, intervention, and parenting practices that are aimed at assisting children experiencing and displaying anger, defiance, and/ or ADHD symptoms.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is defined as a pattern of disruptive, and noncompliant behaviors (anger, outbursts, defiance, etc ) usually directed towards an authority figure like parents and teachers. These behaviors can cause significant distress for both the parents and the child. Behavioral parent training has been shown to be effective in helping parents manage difficult behaviors and reduce family stress.