It is called Iowa Parent-Child Interaction Therapy.

The Mental Health and Wellness Center at Humboldt Community Memorial Hospital is the only facility in the region that offers it.

Letting a parent and child have some play time together while a therapist observes from another room and offers advice to the parent through ear phones is the key element of the therapy.

“The most important thing is that we want to help families,” said Megan Douglas, the therapist who conducts the program in Humboldt.

“We want to help improve child behavior,” she added. “We want to improve the parent-child relationship. We want to bolster the long term emotional health of children.”

Iowa Parent-Child Interaction Therapy was just added to the treatments available at the Mental Health and Wellness Center, which is staffed by a psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse and three therapists.

The new therapy was developed by the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

“I personally feel that it’s going to be very successful,” Douglas said. “Based on the evidence and research I have seen, it is very successful.”

She completed additional training at the University of Iowa to enable her to conduct this style of therapy.

According to Douglas, it uses play therapy techniques to improve interactions between parents and children between the ages of 2 and 7.

The “life coaching” provided to the parents makes the therapy unique, she added.

The therapy sessions are conducted at the Mental Health and Wellness Center. Douglas said the parent and child are in one room and she is in another room, observing by camera and providing advice to the parent.

She said for part of the session, the child leads the play, while the parent leads for another portion.

A course of therapy will consist of 10 to 20 one-hour sessions.