Parenting in the Social Media Age: Defining My Own Style

Dr. Erika Stapert is a New York State licensed psychologist (#019279) who received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan and went on to earn her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School, an APA accredited program.

Dr. Stapert specializes in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) which focuses on teaching parents home-based skills that improve their children’s emotional and behavioral regulation and enhance the parent-child relationship. She provides the standard model of PCIT for children ages 2.5 to 7 years old with disruptive behavior disorders as well as its adaptations for toddlers (12-24 mos) and older children (7-10 y/o). Dr. Stapert is also currently completing her training in PCIT for children and teens with Selective Mutism (SM). She is a certified PCIT Within Agency Trainer and leads MPG’s PCIT training program.

Dr. Stapert also has extensive experience in treating school-aged children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and families with a variety of presenting issues including but not limited to anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship issues, and ADHD. She is formally trained in CBT, play therapy, parent management training, and exposure with response prevention for anxiety disorders and also supports children and teens in developing better executive functioning skills through executive function coaching and training.

Dr. Stapert utilizes an integrated approach including cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused, psychodynamic, systems and client-centered techniques, and works closely with each of her clients in determining the best approach in addressing their individual needs. She has provided individual, family and group therapy in a variety of settings including Head Start programming, a therapeutic nursery, and other outpatient clinic settings.

Outside of her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Stapert oversees MPG’s Trainee Team comprised of social work and psychology interns, externs and postdoctoral fellows. She also enjoys conducting workshops for parents and teachers and has presented on a variety of topics both virtually and in person.

Eleanor Ezell is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and the Founder and Clinical Director at Child and Family Therapy Collective. She is a native to Nashville, Tennessee and she attended the University of the South for undergrad and New York University for graduate training.

She completed a two year Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship at The University of Mississippi Medical Center post-graduate. Her expertise includes working with children and teens with selective mutism, social anxiety, autism, attentiondecit hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional deant disorder with cooccurring developmental delays. For 12+ years, she has been integral in developing and replicating selective mutism intensive treatment programs across the country in NY, CA and most recently in MS where she was personally grant funded to replicate and expand the PCIT-SM Intensive Model of treatment.

Her career began in 2012 under the direction of Dr. Steven Kurtz in New York, NY, who isstill her mentor and dear friend. Accomplishments in her early career have allowed her to work creatively to make strides for access to care in the southeast. Eleanor was the rst to bring both PCIT-SM and TCIT to the state of Mississippi and she built two programs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center for PCIT-SM and TCIT.
She has ne-tuned her working model in treatment taking evidence-based care and joining it with family values work to optimize treatment outcomes that is reective of the evidence base. Her approach is kind, direct and wholistic considering the whole patient and family to assist in growth and positive outcomes.

Eleanor loves to teach and is a therapist trainer in PCIT and global therapist trainer in PCIT-SM. She also is a trainer/coach in TCIT and CARE. Eleanor has trained over 50 clinicians in clinical protocols. She is at her best when she is in the collective experience with a family or trainee. Using this approach of collective information and perspectives allows access to creative learning for all.

In addition to Child and Family Therapy Collective, Eleanor runs our sister company, Eleanor Ezell Consulting, LLC where she trains, teaches and synthesizes her training for families with typically developing children. The Child & Family Learning Lab launched in 2022 to offer psychoeducational workshops to parents all over the world.