Each year our firm conducts an annual Legal Workshop for Mental Health Professionals on issues of family law that could help attendees assist their patients experiencing marital difficulties, divorce and related issues. In many cases, the involvement of mental health professionals in differing capacities can assist in avoiding time-consuming and costly litigation.

One extremely effective approach is Parenting Coordination (PC). This is most commonly described as a child-focused non-adversarial dispute resolution process that is court ordered or agreed upon by divorced and separated parents who have an ongoing conflict and/or litigation concerning their children.

In this process, parenting coordinators attempt to teach parents how to maintain a healthy parenting relationship and function independently of the court. They may help parents resolve conflicts and comply with parenting plans (court ordered, or mutually agreed upon), make decisions regarding children's developmental and psychological needs, and reduce unnecessary re-litigation about child-related issues.

The benefits of PC are many. For the children, it helps create a favorable environment for growth, enhancing their confidence and self-esteem. It reduces the child's symptoms of stress b helping decrease parental conflicts, producing a more relaxed home atmosphere, and allowing the child to adjust to divorce more effectively. It diminishes the child's conflict of loyalty to one parent vs. the other, and increases the likelihood of two active parents in the child's life.

For the parents, this process helps educate parents of the impact that their conflict has on the child's development and teaches them anger management, communication and conflict resolution skills, as well as an understanding of children's issues in divorce.

Ultimately, this process creates a win-win situation for the entire family. It helps parents learn to prioritize children during conflict, provides prompt resolution to daily child-rearing, monitors parental compliance with court orders, and most of all, it can potentially reduce their involvement in litigation.