Information for Referring or Collaborating Legal Professionals
The Complex Family Therapy process is the collaborative therapeutic effort between family members and therapist working towards shared goals.
Complex Family Therapy may involve children, or it may remain focused on the adults in the co-parenting relationship.
Watermark typically employs a two-professional model for Complex Family Therapy cases that involve children needing to repair relationships within a family system that has been disrupted by separation, divorce, distress, etc.. This process requires clinicians to work with the children while a Parenting Coordinator simultaneously works with the parents or adults in the situation.
Together, they assist both parents and children to realign their relationships in a safe, productive and healthy way. The collaboration of two clinical professionals addresses the family system holistically by managing the parental conflict through parenting coordination, while also managing the therapeutic issues for both parents and the children. Further, our collaboration with legal professionals and other relevant decision makers leads to better outcomes for families and minimizes the negative and distressing impacts on children in contentious family situations. In general, we don’t believe in involving children directly in the process until there is a baseline of functional cooperation between the parents. This boundary prevents children from unintentionally being put into a decision making role, which we believe is both developmentally inappropriate and potentially harmful to the child. Further, we will not force children into situations that may add to unreasonably distressing experiences.
Collaboration of therapists and legal professionals can be a challenging task. We strive to be transparent with our processes so that we can maximize the benefits of the variety of professional skills that are available to the family needing Complex Family Therapy. We will only operate in our professional areas of competence (mental health) and we encourage our collaborating colleagues to be operating with similar professional boundaries.
Our process
Complex Family Therapy at Watermark has four phases that typically span on average 6-18 months depending on the complexity of the situation and the compliance and cooperation from the parties involved. Most families spend around 12 months actively engaged in the process.
Phase 1: Exploration/Information Gathering. During this phase we will assess if functional repair is possible and if there are any major barriers to repair (such as a parent who refuses to participate). This phase will always be three sessions and will include individual intake sessions with both parents, and a joint co-parenting session to begin to establish mutually agreed upon treatment goals.
Phase 2 : Preparing parties to repair. This phase will include the Parenting Coordinator facilitating ongoing co-parenting sessions or session work as needed to prepare for successful repair. Concurrently, if childen are involved, the second clinician will work with children as needed, to include sibling as a group (if applicable) to prepare to engage in successful repair.
Phase 3: Repair Sessions. This phase will address the rupture or repairs needed as a whole group. Frequently, both therapists are in the room with the children and parents. New rapport and healthy relationships are built within the family system.
Phase 4 : Maintaining repaired relationships. This final phase ensures that the therapeutic gains are maintained and that any issues that arise after the process are dealt with quickly. Often this maintenance phase focuses on longer term co-parenting, keeping conflict low, supporting the parenting plan and monitoring the development of the family system.
Definition of Roles
Complex Family Therapist - The main goal of Complex Family Therapy is to remove any barriers that might be preventing a parent and child from having a healthy, stable relationship. The goal is not to promote a perfect parent/child relationship (or even one as close as the child may have with other family members) but one in which the child can have access to all primary attachments. The possible barriers to the relationship can be many, such as the passage of time, multiple court interventions, poor parenting skills, lack of understanding of child development, substance use problems, parental interference by the custodial parent, anger management problems, personality disorders, child mental health issues, etc. The Complex Family Therapist’s job is to identify the barriers and then attempt to mitigate and/or manage them through appropriate therapeutic or practical interventions, if possible, and/or referral to services that can assist in the repair efforts. This therapy can be accomplished while a custody case is pending and often benefits from the involvement of a Guardian ad Litem and other relevant legal decision makers (attorneys and the Court). The Parenting Coordinator can assume the lead role in the Complex Family Therapy process to ensure progression and communication.
Parenting Coordinator : Designed for high conflict co-parenting situations in which parents have been unsuccessful at managing their parenting relationship and rely on litigation or the court system to establish a parenting plan. A Parent Coordinator is a specifically named, neutral mental health professional, who leads and assists the parties in navigating communication, resolving problems and facilitating a functional family environment. It is best applied after a case is finalized and a parenting time is established. The Parenting Coordinator maintains working collaborative relationships with all parties involved and works towards the goals that are mutually established by clients. The P.C. utilizes clinical skills, leadership and a relational approach to move the family in the the desired direction. The hope is that the co-parents or family system will use the services of the P.C. to try to resolve their future differences before conflict escalates to a further legal battles.
Co-Parenting Therapist- A mental health professional providing treatment for parents or caretakers who are living apart while sharing parenting responsibilities. It is designed to help co-parents refocus their relationship to a practical approach focused on the well being and parenting process of the children. A Co-Parenting therapist can offer the tools and strategies to guide co-parents into a new way of thinking about how to jointly raise their children while minimizing conflict. A parenting plan is a critical part of the successful co-parenting process and typically delineates parenting time and other sensitive boundaries or parenting preferences. Co-parenting Therapy is the ideal option where parent- child relationships are not the main concern, but instead the shared parenting roles have become too difficult for the parents to manage independently.
Clinical Team Member - The clinical team members are therapists who work specifically with individuals concurrently alongside the family process. This often looks like a therapist who supports a person, a child /children or a sibling group while family therapy process continues. This role is crucial for children because it provides a safe space for them to process their experience during a typically stressful time. At Watermark, we advocate for the use of Play Therapy when working with children ages 3-13. Additionally, when family therapy occurs in the later stages of the Complex Family Therapy process, this clinician will able to be in the room, with their clients, to provide support in the moment.
Communication
We welcome phone conferences from time to time to check in with the clinical process. We find it helpful and efficient to talk to all of the therapists involved as a group and we will do our best to coordinate that.
We can provide a written clinical summary of the process whenever you request. We aim for these summaries to be neutral, fact focused documents that all parties involved can have access to. Clinical summaries will generally include dates of sessions, treatment plan goals, process and clinical observations and recommendations.
We will communicate with our clients as needed, which sometimes means communication outside of sessions. Clients can expect to have access to the therapists when they need support.
Outcomes
Our hope is that families are able to find new and healthy ways of relating to each other. The maximum achievable outcome varies by family and no two family outcomes look the same. Sometimes, only basic contact for logistics between parents is the healthiest outcome possible. Other times, fully shared parenting time and secure relationships with both parents and between all children can be achieved. The outcome goals and expectations will be discussed frequently throughout the process.
Helpful Hints for Legal Professionals and their Clients (from our perspective!)
Court orders that contain accurate language about the therapeutic process are crucial for collaborative success. We are always happy to clearly define what we are able and willing to do from our end, to assist you in documenting the desired therapeutic plan accurately and clearly. Specifically, we have seen success with naming a specific Parenting Coordinator in the court order to ensure the therapeutic process is intentionally facilitated and that clients understand the roles and clinical process.
Confidentiality. We inform all of the clients that with the collaborative nature of a Complex Family Therapy process they will forfeit some of their confidentiality due to the interdisciplinary nature of the work. Basic and best ethical practices of confidentiality will still apply.
We highly discourage attorney subpoenas of our session notes due to the risk of clinical process interference and the damage that can be done to the existing working relationships. We will always provide alternative written clinical summaries.
We can provide testimony in court related to our clinical work, but we always prefer not to appear in court. We will submit timely summary documents or have phone calls to provide decision makers with pertinent information. Court appearances incur additional costs to the clients and are poor use of our time as clinicians.
It is the client’s responsibility to maintain their therapy schedules, stay up to date on payments, inform us of upcoming court dates or needed documentation.
The client will sign a clinical consent form with our office, failure to abide by the terms can result in their termination from our services.