Parenting Coordination Training
June 20-21, 2008, at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO
Offered by the Center for Dispute Resolution at Missouri State University and the Greene County Family Court Domestic Relations ADR Program
What is Parenting Coordination?
For More Information
What is Parenting Coordination?
According to Greene County’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy and Procedure Manual, parenting coordination is a child-focused alternative dispute resolution process in which a mental health or legal professional with mediation training and experience assists high-conflict parents to implement their parenting plan. This is accomplished by facilitating the resolution of their disputes in a timely manner, educating parents about children's needs, and with prior approval of the parties and/or the court, making decisions within the scope of the court order or appointment contract.
The overall objective of parenting coordination is to assist high-conflict parents to implement their parenting plan, to monitor compliance with the details of the plan, to resolve conflicts regarding their children and the parenting plan in a timely manner, and to protect and sustain safe, healthy and meaningful parent-child relationships. The Parenting Coordinator role is most frequently reserved for those high conflict parents who have demonstrated their longer-term inability or unwillingness to make parenting decisions on their own, to comply with parenting agreements and orders, to reduce their child-related conflicts, and to protect their children from the impact of that conflict. Parenting coordination is a quasi-legal, mental health, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process that combines assessment, education, case management, conflict management and sometimes decision-making functions.
Parents who are in chronic high conflict pose particular difficulties for the courts, the professionals who are involved with them, and their children. This training provides an overview of the new professional role of parenting coordination and begins to prepare participants to serve as parenting coordinators.
This comprehensive training will include subject areas outlined in the new 2005 AFCC Guidelines for Parenting Coordination. Topics covered in the training include the following:
- The psychological dynamics of high-conflict families
- Parenting-coordinator functions and practices
- Parenting coordination techniques and issues
- Legal framework and scope of authority
- The ethical and legal challenges of parenting coordinators
- The process of parent coordination – structure and mechanics
- Writing agreements and drafting decisions
- The qualifications and abilities needed to be a parenting coordinator
This two day training is appropriate for professionals and students in a variety of fields, including the following:
- Mediators
- Attorneys
- Mental health professionals
- Social work professionals
- Others interested in parent coordination
Robin M. Deutsch, Ph.D., is a psychologist and Director of Forensic Services of the Children and the Law Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her work has focused on the application of child development research to children’s adjustment to divorce, the evaluation of families involved in family change, parenting issues, and management of high conflict divorce. Dr. Deutsch has co-authored published articles on the effects of high conflict divorce, the evaluation of domestic violence, management of cases of Munchausen by Proxy, parenting coordination, developmentally appropriate parenting plans and attachment considerations, and is co-author of 7 Things Your Teenager Can’t Tell You (and How to Talk About Them Anyway). She is the President-Elect of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the former president of the Massachusetts Chapter of AFCC and was a member of the AFCC Task Force that developed Guidelines for Parenting Coordination (2005).
Guidelines to become a Parenting Coordinator in Greene County, MO
The Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy and Procedure Manual describes several requirements for individuals who wish to receive court referrals as parenting coordinators, including the following:
- Be an attorney or a person who possesses a graduate degree in a field that includes the study of psychiatry, psychology, social work, counseling or other behavioral science substantially related to marriage and family interpersonal relationships.
- Have received a minimum of 40 hours of civil and family mediator training. (Note: The CDR offers a 40-hour civil and family mediation training; the next course will be offered July 16-20, 2008. Receive a discount when you register for both the parenting coordination training and the civil and family mediation training.)
- Have significant practical experience in their profession with high-conflict or litigious parents.
- Have training in the parenting coordination process, family dynamics in separation and divorce, parenting coordination techniques, domestic violence and child maltreatment, and court specific parenting coordination procedures. (Note: The CDR’s Parenting Coordination Training will cover each of these topics)
For More Information
For more information on this training please email CDR@MissouriState.edu or call (417) 836-8831.