Transforming Teen Behavior

Mary Nord Cook, MD is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Colorado School of Medicine, who served as the Medical Director of Outpatient Services for the Department of Psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) from 2005-2014. She has been extensively involved in the training of medical students, psychology and social work graduate students, along with psychiatry residents. She recently won a resident nominated award for teaching excellence and has also been recognized by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), as an Outstanding Mentor. She specializes in working with families presenting with youngsters who’ve been diagnosed with Disruptive Behavior and Mood Disorders. She spearheaded the development of a series of multidisciplinary, outpatient specialty clinics, along with intensive outpatient programs at the Children’s Hospital Colorado. She recently wrote a book detailing the evidence-based, standardized, skills building treatment protocols used for the school-aged patient population, in both the routine and intensive outpatient programs, titled Transforming Behavior: Training Parents & Kids Together. She also co-authored a peer reviewed journal article that described the positive clinical outcomes obtained in the intensive outpatient program for children with disruptive behavior. She has authored books, chapters, review articles and contributed to the AACAP Practice Parameters on family interventions. She frequently performs presentations in the community for school, primary care and youth outreach programs. In addition, she routinely presents at regional and national, professional conferences, often on an invited basis. Her passions are developing and applying family and strengths-based approaches, pursuant of a goal to minimize medication, while optimizing parenting and psychosocial skills. Her mantra is “More Skills =’s Less Pills!”

Dr. Cook received her bachelor’s degree (psychology) with honors, from the University of Michigan and her doctoral degree (medicine) from Wayne State University. She completed her general psychiatry residency at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego and her child fellowship training at the University of California, San Diego.