Melissa K. Runyon, Ph.D. is currently a licensed psychologist and owner of Melissa Runyon, Ph.D., PLLC Training and Consulting Services in Prospect, Kentucky. Dr. Runyon began her career in 1997 at the Miami University School of Medicine’s Child Protection Team in Miami, Florida where she founded and directed the Family and Child Treatment Services (FACTS) program. In 1999 she took a position as Treatment Services Director of the CARES (Child Abuse Research Education and Service) Institute where she achieved the rank of professor of psychiatry at Rowan SOM. For nearly 16 years, Dr. Runyon provided oversight of all clinical activities, including offering training and clinical supervision to staff and trainees in the evidence-based therapies (EBTs), Combined Parent-Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CPC-CBT) and Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), developed at the CARES Institute.
Dr. Runyon has been the principal investigator or Project Director on grants supporting research or services from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse Mental Health and Services Administration, and private foundations to support their research, training and service efforts. Dr. Runyon is the primary developer, with Dr. Esther Deblinger, of CPC-CBT, an evidence-based treatment for children and families who are at-risk for or who have experienced child physical abuse. She received federal funding from NIMH to examine outcomes associated with child and parent participation in CPC-CBT. This study was the first to examine a group CBT model with this population and the first to directly examine the benefits of including the child in the offending parent’s treatment. CPC-CBT is listed on the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices where the model received the highest possible score for readiness for dissemination. Dr. Runyon conducts national and international trainings and provides consultation to disseminate CPC-CBT to professionals. In fact, she has worked for a number of years with the government and mental health professionals in Sweden to disseminate CPC-CBT and these groups have replicated the findings of a pilot study conducted by Runyon and her colleagues. Dr. Runyon has co-authored numerous journal articles and book chapters in the areas of child abuse and domestic violence and recently coauthored a CPC-CBT book for Oxford Press’ Treatment That Works Series. Dr. Runyon has served as a co-investigator on a NIMH-funded outcome study examining TF-CBT with her colleagues Drs. Cohen, Deblinger, and Mannarino and recently coauthored a book about the application of TF-CBT for children who have experienced child sexual abuse. She provides training and consultation in TF-CBT to professionals nationally and internationally.