FYI for sydney members. Treatment of Selective Mutism in Children and Adolescents: Reflections on my research and my clinical learning A one hour seminar presented by Maria Milic 24th June, 2013 at 7pm (registration from 6:30pm) at the Roxbury Hotel, 180-182 St Johns Road, Glebe Cost: (incl. GST) AACBT Member: $20, AACBT Associate (Student) Member: $20, Non- Member: $40 To register go to: http://www.aacbt.org/viewStory/Seminar%3A+Treatment+of+Selective+Mutism+in+Children+and+Adolescents%3A+Reflections+on+my+research+and+my+clinical+learning Approximatelty 1% of children will meet criteria for a diagnosis of Selective Mutism (SM). Children with SM are able to speak and understand spoken language. However, in select situations like school, community based activities and with less familiar extended family and friends they fail to use their voice. The adults in the child's life frequently struggle to understand the failure to speak and how to support the child to begin to talk. By the time families seek treatment they will describe having tried a range of strategies to try to "get the child to speak" from giving them space to outgrown the behaviour, to pressuring them to speak. The consensus in the research for the past 15 years is that Selective Mutism is a social anxiety based disorder. This talk will offer an overview of the current research on Selective Mutism, and reflect on the clinical learnings of implementing the cognitive behavioural treatment steps with a silent child or adolescent and an anxious system eager to break the silence. About the presenter: Maria Ivanka Milic has worked as a Clinical Psychologist with children, adoelscents and their families for 19 years. For the majority of her clinical career she worked in a tertiatry child, adolescent and family psychiatry service that offered individual inpatient and daypatient admissions as well as family admissions. During this time she developed her interest in working with children and adolescent with severe anxiety disorders and selective mutism. She developed a school based cognitive behavioural treatment model for working with children and adolescents with selective mutism, and ran a half-day a week Selective Mutism clinic between 2002 and 2010. She commenced working in private practice in 2012 and continues to have a strong interest in the assessment and treatment of Selective Mutism.