Alison Leary, Ph.D. (Director of CATS, Licensed Psychologist)
Alison Leary directs the Child and Adolescent Treatment Center of Seattle and works with children, adolescents and their families. She provides evidence based individual therapy (primarily cognitive behavioral therapy), behavioral parent training and family therapy. She has a particular expertise in providing treatment when children or adolescents experience strong, seemingly unpredictable emotions. Within the context of a warm, supportive relationship, she focuses on teaching young people skills that help them to develop a sense of confidence and mastery in effectively managing their emotions and behavior both at home and at school.
As an important part of her practice, Dr. Leary especially enjoys consulting with parents to best support their children's progress using behavioral parent training strategies. For many presenting concerns, including noncompliant and oppositional behavior, research indicates that parents can be the most potent agents of change and that they can reliably elicit better behavior from their children if they are provided with targeted coaching and support. As an integral part of this, Dr. Leary works with parents who are frustrated or having difficulty managing their own emotional response to their children's behavior. She sees this as a rewarding, often overlooked, component of effective treatment. Dr. Leary also works with parents when they are seeking ways to support their children's progress in cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety, depression and other presenting concerns.
Dr. Leary co-founded the Parenting Your Challenging Child class at EBTCS, based on the Incredible Years program, an evidence based treatment for children with conduct problems and ADHD. The effectiveness of the Incredible Years Program has been well established by carefully constructed research and has been recommended as a well-established treatment for conduct problems by the American Psychological Division 12 Task force.
Dr. Leary received her B.A. from McGill University before going on to receive her Ph.D. in Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington. She obtained training in treating a wide variety of children with diverse presenting concerns as part of her clinical internship at Seattle Children's Hospital. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology at Seattle Children's Hospital, focusing on the treatment of eating disorders and neuropsychological assessment.
Dr. Leary has been involved in a number of federally funded research projects and has authored several scholarly publications. Her research has focused on children who struggle to manage strong negative emotions (such as children with aggression and conduct problems) as well as those who are faced with unexpected, stressful life events. Dr. Leary's research has a particular emphasis on what parents and families can do to promote resiliency in these children. See below for complete list of publications.
Katz, L.F., Leary, A.P., Breiger, D. & Friedman, D (2010).Pediatric cancer and the quality of children's dyadic peer interactions.
Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Malkovich-Fong, A.K., Leary, A.P., Collett, B. & Myers, K (2010).
Rating Scales. In K. Cheng and K. Myers (Eds.) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: The Essentials, 29-50.
Hilt, R & Leary, A.P. (2009).
Asthma and Cystic Fibrosis. In Y. Frank & R. Nass (Eds.) Cognitive and Behavioral Manifestations of Pediatric Disorders.
Leary, A.P., Myers, K.M. & Collett, B (In Press).
Rating Scales in Psychiatric Assessment. In M. Dulcan (Ed.) Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Fourth Edition.
Leary, A.P. & Katz, L.F. (2005).
Observations of aggressive children during peer provocation and with a best friend. Developmental Psychology, 41, 124-134.
Leary, A.P. & Katz L.F. (2004).
Coparenting, family process, and peer relationship outcomes: The moderating role of vagal tone. Development & Psychopathology, 16, 593-608.