Consultation will highlight parameters for balancing clinical issues within the family with court ordered reunification goals. Key objectives include:
Maintaining effective boundaries in your professional role
Collaborating with other professionals such as attorneys, therapists, parenting coordinators, parent coaches, parenting time supervisors, custody evaluators, DHS, law enforcement, and judges
Observing self care, consistently, through the course of the case
Documenting your work clearly and effectively
Writing objective reports to the court
Managing the pace of the case
Reunification can be difficult and a prolonged process. It involves the entire family system to be effective. This requires many hours of work supporting family members through the process. The experience and competing narratives of each child, parent, and extended family member need to be respected, while simultaneously working toward common ground. One, ideally, that normalizes the relationship and parenting time with the child and the resisted parent. Lessening co-parent conflict is a central concern to keep children out of the middle.
Established research in the family law field recognizes the value of experiential therapies as a modality that can more rapidly help families overcome severe resist / refuse dynamics and other parent-child contact problems. Mind-Body oriented approaches may be particularly powerful in helping clients navigate and overcome anxiety, distrust, and distress inherent in reintegrating a family.
In reunification / reintegration work, finding an outpatient therapist willing to collaborate with the reunification specialist is vital. The therapist should be knowledgeable and experienced in court involved scenarios, and have a broad skill set covering some, if not most, of the areas listed below.
Providing clients psycho-education on Interpersonal Neurobiology, Trauma Informed Therapy, Attachment Theory and Polyvagal theory is very useful. This enables the therapist to be most effective for the therapeutic challenges that are likely to arise. A willingness to work with all members of the family system is strongly recommended.
Below is a list of professional experience and skills recommended for outpatient therapists working with a family engaged in court involved reunification:
Family Systems Orientation
Improving Coping Skills
Emotional Regulation
Mindfulness
Motivational Interviewing
Collaborative Problem-solving Techniques
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Exposure Therapy and Systematic Desensitization
Post-Divorce / Separation Adjustment
Blended Family Integration
Addiction / Substance Abuse
Domestic Violence / Coercive Control Training
Familiarity with Court Involved Cases (CIT)
BIFF (Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm, from Bill Eddy, LCSW, High Conflict Institute) and ACT (Accurate, Complete, Timely) Guidelines for Co-Parent Communication
Play Therapy, Brain Spotting, EFT, EMDR, Mind-Body techniques, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Consultation services will help you navigate a path to resolve parent-child contact problems. It is necessary to help families focus on the present, move past the grip of stuck resentment and mistrust, and put energy toward healing and repair. It is the job and responsibility of the reunification expert to assess how a parent and / or child are managing these goals. As a court appointed reunification provider, you should have the authority to recommend appropriate interventions, including additional treatment for any family member referenced in the Court Order.
Examples of therapeutic benefits that mind-body approaches promote, include the following:
1. Awareness of physiological, cognitive, behavioral and emotional responses
2. Self compassion for whatever is coming up in the moment.
3. Examples of mindful choice in action:
Moving from a preoccupation with “why” something is happening to awareness of “what” is happening, without judgement
Focusing on being in the present moment versus worrying about the future outcome
Forgiving oneself for poor decisions and past behavior
Developing distress tolerance
Learning to acknowledge and validate the views of others even when we disagree with them
“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.”