Professionals in the mental health field commonly work with children and families in crisis. With over half of all marriages in the United States ending in divorce, mental health professionals frequently find themselves involved in these complex family structures. Well-meaning professionals can be negatively impacted by this involvement if they are unaware of the specialized issues that come with the dynamics of these families and the potential court interaction. Worse yet, this involvement can not only have long-term damaging effects on your professional credibility, but on these children and their families as well. This 6-hour seminar presented by Bradley S. Craig, LMSW-IPR, CFLE, author of Between Two Homes: A Coparenting Handbook offers participants the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the higher standard of practice involved in working with these families while learning about current research and knowledge regarding two-home issues. We'll also discuss resources and parenting coordination tools available to these families.

Course Content

behind closed doors – an inside look at high-conflict family dynamics

• What is coparenting?
• Recognizing where the family is
• The family in transition
• Vulnerability of the family
• Consequences for adults
• Children’s adjustment
• Best interest?
• Parentification
• Relocation
• The legal system
• Empowerment
• Terminology
• Resources and options for families
• Conflict addiction

Ethical considerations for clinical & forensic roles

• Dynamics of court involvement
• Guidelines for practice
• Therapeutic vs. forensic
• Defining roles
• Maintain your role
• Avoiding dual roles or multiple hat issues
• Treating with bias

Managing Risk FROM DAY ONE

• Know your family code and licensing authority
• Why have a copy of orders?
• What to look for in orders
• Consent issues
• Forms and accessibility
• Intake
• Defining your client
• Goals
• If you are the child’s therapist…
• Reports
• This happened vs. client reports
• Who can you report on?
• But I’ve been ordered to…

child-First Strategies for high-conflict families

• A parenting coordination model

• High-conflict behavioral patterns
• Labels: cooperative, high-conflict, and domestic violence
• Benefits and problems related to labels
• Things to recognize and tools to use
• Common parenting mistakes
• Cognitive work
• Boundary recognition
• The blame game
• Sympathy vs. empathy
• Cooperative vs. parallel vs. conflicted coparenting
• Alienation
• Estrangement
• Differentiating domestic violence