RFP-C Talk: Dr. Timothy Rice

About the Authors of RFP-C:

Dr. Leon Hoffman is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in practice in New York, NY.  He is Co-Director of the Pacella Research Center of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and the creator and original author of the RFP-C approach. 

Dr. Timothy Rice is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in practice in New York, NY.  He is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he is Co-Chair of the Child Division at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.

Objectives: This talk provides an introduction to the theory, evidence, and practice of Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C). RFP-C is a manualized, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for children with externalizing problems. It is designed to help children and their families understand the meaning of disruptive behavior and to increase effective emotion regulation.

Methods: Current leaders of the RFP-C approach will explain the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of RFP-C and focus on its clinical technique.  Clinical work with racial and ethnic minority and underserved children is emphasized. The introduction to the clinical technique describes the real-life psychotherapy. An invitation to the audience to consider their own case material and clinical challenges in work with children with disruptive behaviors will conclude the presentation. Results RFP-C is among the several short-term psychodynamic psychotherapies with an evidence basis. Clinical vignettes of techniques with both children and their caregivers can illustrate the practical aspects of its use. The audience’s discussion can be understood within  an RFP-C model, which can provide helpful suggestions for clinical direction.

Conclusions: Effective assessment and therapeutic techniques for use with children who present with disruptive and defiant behavior, irritability, and emotional dysregulation is accessible and employable through the evidence-based short term psychodynamic psychotherapy RFP-C.

Bibliography:

Prout, T. A., Rice, T., Chung, H., Gorokhovsky, Y., Murphy, S., & Hoffman, L. (2021)
Randomized controlled trial of Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children: A manualized psychodynamic treatment for externalizing behaviors. Psychotherapy Research, 32(5), 555-570.
Prout, T. A., Bernstein, M., Gaines, E., Aizin, S., Sessler, D., Racine, E., Spigelman, A., Rice, T., & Hoffman, L. (2020). Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children in clinical practice: Case vignettes from psychotherapy outcome studies. International Journal of Play Therapy, 29(1), 43– 53.
Hoffman L. Do children get better when we interpret their defenses against painful feelings? Psychoanal Study Child. 2007;62:291-313.
Hoffman, L., Rice, T. R., & Prout, T. A. (2016). Manual of regulation-focused psychotherapy for children (RFP-C) with externalizing behaviors: A psychodynamic approach. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rice TR, Hoffman L. Defense mechanisms and implicit emotion regulation: A comparison of a psychodynamic construct with one from contemporary neuroscience.
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 2014;62(4):693-708.