Telehealth for Evidence-Based Treatments With Adolescents and Young Adults: Clinical Ethical Applications

Rachel Busman, PsyD, ABPP is the senior director of the Anxiety Disorders Center and director of the Selective Mutism Service at the Child Mind Institute. She leads a team of clinicians providing evaluation and innovative treatment to children with selective mutism. Dr. Busman is the past President of the Selective Mutism Association, the nation’s largest network of professionals, families, and individuals with selective mutism.

Dr. Busman has extensive experience providing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to children, teenagers and young adults struggling with anxiety disorders, school difficulties and behavioral problems. She also has specific interest and expertise in the evaluation and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias.

Dr. Busman has worked with children in both inpatient and outpatient settings at a major academic medical center, where she directed a multidisciplinary team. She has taught and supervised psychiatry residents and child psychiatry fellows, and lectured extensively on a variety of topics, including the evidence-based assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders in children and teens.

Dr. Busman works intensively with children who have selective mutism, and is dedicated to establishing trust and instilling a sense of hope in her patients as she helps them on their path to recovery.

Jami Furr, Ph.D. is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Senior Psychologist in the Mental Health Interventions and Technology (MINT) Program, and the Selective Mutism Program at the Center for Children and Families at Florida International University (FIU). Dr. Furr serves as the current President of the Selective Mutism Association, where she has been a member of the Board of Directors for the last 4 years. Dr. Furr has extensive expertise in cognitive-behavioral treatments and telehealth adaptations of treatments for childhood anxiety, disruptive behavior disorders, and selective mutism, with a focus on preschool mental health, and serves as a trainer and consultant on the largest PCORI-funded project on anxiety in youth. She directed the first randomized clinical trial of the intensive group behavioral treatment for selective mutism in young children, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Her selective mutism program has been featured in the media, including The New York Times. She was an inaugural Associate Editor for Evidence Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health for 3 years. Prior to joining FIU, she served as Clinical Director of the Child Program at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders of Boston University, where she began their Selective Mutism Program. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Temple University, completed her clinical internship at the NYU-Bellevue Clinical Psychology Internship Program and NYU Child Study Center, and finished her training in a NIH-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship at the NYU Child Study Center.