On-Demand Courses

Calm and Confident: Managing Challenging Behaviors

Calm and Confident: Managing Challenging Behaviors is a on-demand, online parenting course brought to you by the Stanford Parenting Center and the Stanford Center for Health Education. This program delves into practical strategies, insights, and approaches for addressing your child’s challenging behaviors and fostering harmony in your family dynamic. The course contains four self-paced instructional modules, including videos, reflection exercises, and other resources that will support your learning journey. This course is taught by Stanford University School of Medicine faculty and staff.

Recommended for caregivers of children ages 5-12 years old.

Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction to Challenging Behaviors
- Rupture, Repair, and PRIDE
- Emotion Regulation
  - Regulating Your Own Emotions
  - Helping Your Child Regulate Their Emotions
Week 2: Positive Reinforcement
- Identifying and Defining Behavior
- ABCs of Behavior
- Positive Reinforcement
  - Specific Praise
  - Shaping
  - Visual Aids
  - Material Rewards
  - Validation and Emotion Labeling
Week 3: Selective Attention
- Selective Attention
  - Common Challenges in Selective Attention
- Redirection to the Positive
- Distraction
- Validation with Limits
Week 4: Limit Setting
- Effective Directions to Promote Listening
- Natural and Logical Consequences
- Reducing Power Struggles: Choices and Compromise

Meet the Instructors

Mari Kurahashi, MD, MPH

Dr. Kurahashi's research and clinical efforts focus on evidence-based parenting support treatments (PCIT, PMT, and SPACE) that improve the parent-child relationship and decrease the parent and child’s psychopathology. She is the Co-Director of the Stanford Parenting Center (SPC) which supports parents by tapping into existing parenting abilities while also teaching specific parenting competencies grounded in science. SPC supports parents so they gain confidence in and enjoyment of parenting which helps decrease pediatric psychiatric conditions. Her work focuses on how parenting styles impact the child’s development, coping defenses, emotion regulation, beliefs, behaviors, cognitive abilities, and values and how parenting practices can foster wellbeing in the child. In addition, Dr. Kurahashi has a longstanding mindfulness practice and leads a Mindful Parenting program to foster parental wellbeing. She was also the lead physician in the Child Psychiatry Telehealth Clinic and piloted the first telehealth visit in the Stanford Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Kurahashi remains passionate about advancing the use of digital health and technology to improve mental healthcare and access to care.

Elizabeth Reichert, PhD

Dr. Reichert specializes in evidence-based treatments of anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and disruptive behaviors. Her research and clinical efforts focus on the etiology and treatment of these disorders with an emphasis on parenting factors and promoting health and resiliency within family systems. Her most recent work focuses on the impact of family accommodation in the development and maintenance of anxiety and disruptive behavior, and parenting interventions aimed at preventing and/or reducing risk for these disorders. As Co-Director of the Stanford Parenting Center (SPC), Dr. Reichert is passionate about building caregivers’ capacity to support their child’s ever changing emotional and behavioral needs. She applies her expertise in evidence-based practices, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Parent Management Training (PMT), and Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) to develop caregivers’ skills to mitigate and manage their child’s mental health needs, while increasing caregivers’ confidence and joy in their parenting abilities. Focused on prevention-based efforts, Dr. Reichert seeks to respond to the growing need for parenting support, with efforts to increase access to critical digital programming, aimed at promoting health and resiliency within family systems, reducing risk, and improving the overall mental health and well-being of youth and their families.

Kyle Cassidy, LCSW

Kyle Cassidy is a licensed clinical social worker and mental health clinician for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. She plays an integral role within the division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry supporting children, adolescents and families by providing diagnostic assessment and evidence-based individual and group treatment programs. Mrs. Cassidy has expertise in parent management of challenging behaviors – with specialized training in neurodevelopmental and anxiety disorders. She is a proud mother of two young children.

How to Register

June 9, 2025: Registration for this course is temporarily closed while we make updates. Please check back in August 2025, and join our email list to be notified as soon as it reopens!

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions or concerns about registering, or would like to apply for a scholarship, please email us at parentingcenter@stanford.edu.

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