Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry

We provide crisis care for children and adolescents at WVU Medicine’s Chestnut Ridge Center. We offer inpatient stabilization through psychiatric hospitalization for young people (ages 13 to 17) with suicidal ideations, psychotic symptoms, and other types of severe distress. Our inpatient psychiatric adolescent unit services include crisis stabilization, medication management, psychotherapy, family therapy, recreational therapy, and case management. Typical stays are five to seven days.

Inpatient consultation services at WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital are for children and adolescents with acute psychiatric concerns who have been admitted to inpatient care at WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital or the emergency department. We assess the level of care your child needs and provide recommendations for medication and psychotherapy services to meet those needs helping triage patients to an appropriate level of psychiatric care. Patients admitted to WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital also have access to hospital-based pediatric psychology and therapy services during their medical hospitalization.

We provide comprehensive, evidence-based diagnostic evaluations through our ADHD Assessment Clinic for children ages 4–11 with concerns related to attention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, or related emotional or behavioral difficulties. 

Our evaluations help families better understand their children’s needs and guide recommendations for treatment and school support. This is a diagnostic-only clinic and does not provide IQ, academic, or autism testing. 

We provide specialized care through our Eating Disorder Interdisciplinary Treatment (EDIT) Clinic for children and adolescents struggling with eating disorders and concerns related to eating, weight, and body image. We recognize that eating disorders affect both physical and emotional health and often require coordinated, family-centered care.   

Our team supports children and adolescents who may be experiencing difficulty eating or restricting food intake, episodes of loss of control around eating, or distress related to food, weight, or body image. Some individuals may engage in secretive eating behaviors, rigid or excessive exercise, fear weight gain, or use behaviors such as purging or misuse of laxatives or diet pills. 

We offer individualized treatment plans that may include medical monitoring, therapy, nutrition support, psychiatric care, and family involvement, all focused on recovery, safety, and long-term health.  

We provide mental health services for children from birth through age five and their families through our Infant and Early Childhood Clinic. Early childhood is a critical time for emotional, behavioral, and relational development, and early support can have lasting benefits. 

Our care focuses on strengthening caregiver-child relationships, supporting emotional regulation, and addressing early behavioral concerns while partnering closely with families. Our team members represent a range of disciplines, including psychiatry, case management, and social work. 

We offer the Medical Coping Clinic for Children and Adolescents (MeCCCA) to support children and teens ages 2–17 who are experiencing emotional or behavioral challenges related to a medical condition, injury, or illness. This clinic provides brief, focused outpatient therapy to help children and families cope with the day-to-day impact of medical concerns. 

MeCCCA is designed for children who may be struggling to adjust to a new diagnosis, manage medical treatments or medication routines, or cope with symptoms that interfere with daily functioning. Children may also experience distress related to medical procedures, such as needle phobia, as well as sleep difficulties or short-term pain concerns, including headaches. Some children develop behavioral or emotional challenges related to living with a chronic medical condition, which can affect school performance, relationships, and overall quality of life. 

Through our Multifamily Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Clinic, we provide specialized Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for adolescents experiencing intense emotions, high-risk behaviors, or complex psychiatric concerns. We use DBT to help individuals develop skills to manage overwhelming emotions, reduce harmful behaviors, and improve relationships. Our approach emphasizes both acceptance of difficult experiences and learning practical skills for change, with the goal of helping individuals build a life worth living based on their own values. 

We offer Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an evidence-based treatment for children ages 2–7 with behavioral and emotional challenges. PCIT helps caregivers build positive, effective parenting skills while improving child behavior and emotional regulation. 

We commonly use PCIT to help children who struggle with tantrums, aggression, defiance, difficulty following directions, and emotional outbursts. 

We provide Parent Management Training (PMT) for children ages 2–10 with mild to moderate disruptive behaviors. PMT focuses on helping caregivers learn practical strategies to manage challenging behaviors and strengthen family functioning. 

We use PMT to address concerns such as noncompliance, back-talk, tantrums, and mild to moderate aggression associated with diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or disruptive disorders.  

We provide comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for children with medical, neurological, or developmental conditions that affect thinking, learning, memory, attention, or behavior. These evaluations help families and providers better understand how brain-based conditions impact daily functioning. 

We use results to guide medical care, educational planning, therapy recommendations, and school accommodations when appropriate, helping children reach their full potential. 

We support children and families coping with medical illness through our Pediatric Psychology Integrated Care services. Our psychologists are embedded within pediatric medical specialty clinics, allowing us to address emotional and behavioral needs as part of routine medical care. 

We help children manage stress, adjust to diagnoses, cope with treatments, and build resilience while working closely with medical teams. Integrated services are available in areas such as cystic fibrosis, hematology/oncology, endocrinology, cleft lip and palate, nephrology, gastroenterology, medical weight management, and inpatient medical units. 

Our multidisciplinary PREVENT Clinic focuses on supporting adolescents who are at risk for or struggling with substance use. Whether a teen has recently begun using substances or is experiencing more advanced patterns of use, the clinic helps adolescents and families better understand the thoughts, behaviors, and circumstances that contribute to substance use. 

PREVENT provides comprehensive psychiatric evaluations that include assessment of substance use and behavioral risk, along with individual and family therapy. Services also include substance use screening, monitoring, and motivational support, as well as medication-assisted treatment and medication management for co-occurring mental health conditions when appropriate. Parent guidance and family support are integral parts of care. 

The PREVENT Clinic emphasizes early intervention, reducing risk, and supporting recovery while addressing co-occurring emotional and mental health concerns in a supportive, family-centered environment. 

We provide specialized, trauma-informed care through our Resiliency After Complex Trauma (ReACT) Clinic for children and adolescents who have experienced complex trauma, foster care involvement, or significant psychosocial stressors. Services are designed to support both children and caregivers and focus on healing, emotional regulation, safety, and resilience. Care is individualized and grounded in evidence-based trauma treatments, which may include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral approaches, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, attachment- and regulation-based interventions, parent-child interaction therapy, and trust-based relational strategies. These approaches are tailored to each child’s developmental level and unique experiences to support recovery and long-term wellbeing. 

We provide services for children who have growth and development disabilities in the brain and central nervous system. We treat balance and movement disorders, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorders, demyelinating disorders, and others. Learn more about the WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Neurodevelopmental Center.