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 is the umbrella term we use to refer to the process that may include Parenting Coordination, coparenting work, or child-parent relationships or any other combination of family relationship. Our initial assessment phase will include individual intake appointments with the adults involved, plus gathering any additional information that can inform us whether the family is a good fit for this process.
Watermark typically employs a multi-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 will work with the parents or adults in the situation. Together, they can assist both parents and children to realign their relationships in a safe, productive and healthy way.
Parenting Coordination is entirely focused on reducing conflict and toxic stress between parents. Managing high conflict parenting relationships can prevent additional harm to the children and adults involved. Parenting coordination does not involve children directly.
When kids are involved the collaboration of 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 will not involve 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 any 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.
When you collaborate with us, you may hear us ask you about the “Essential Question” which is, from your perspective, what you would like to see accomplished for your client. It’s important that we begin the process with a clear idea of what we are trying to accomplish.
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, or contraindications such as abuse, domestic violence or unmanaged mental health concerns). This phase will always be three sessions and will include individual intake sessions with all adult parties, and a joint co-parenting session to begin to establish mutually agreed upon treatment goals.
Phase 2 : Preparing parties to work towards repair. This phase will include the Parenting Coordinator facilitating ongoing co-parenting sessions as needed to prepare for successful repair. Concurrently, if children are involved, another 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 with family therapy. If there is a family component required, 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. Parenting Coordination cases will continue to regularly meet and maintain a low conflict working relationship between co-parents.pol
Definition of Roles
Complex Family Therapist - The main goal of a Complex Family Therapist is to provide leadership to a complex family situation that requires coordinated, intentional efforts to improve the family dynamic. This therapist works to remove barriers that might be preventing a parent and child from having a healthy, stable relationship or they help to establish healthy co-parenting patterns. 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, mental health or 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 effort. This process may include relevant legal decision makers (GAL, attorneys and the Court). A Parenting Coordinator can assume the lead role in the Complex Family Therapy process to ensure progression and communication.
Parenting Coordinator : This role is a specific designation and acts as the facilitator in coparenting situations in which parents have been unsuccessful at managing their Coparenting relationship, the role of this person is solely to REDUCE toxic conflict between parties and follow a formulated parenting plan. A Parent Coordinator is usually a specifically named person 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/plan is established. The Parenting Coordinator maintains working collaborative relationships with all parties involved and works towards goals that are mutually established by clients. The PC utilizes clinical skills, mediation skills, leadership skills and a relational approach to move the family in the the desired direction. The hope is that the coparents or family system will use the services of the PC to try to resolve their future differences before conflict escalates to a further legal battles. Parenting Coordinators usually do not work directly with children involved.
CoParenting Therapist/ Parenting Coaching - A mental health professional providing support for parents or caretakers who are living apart while sharing parenting responsibilities of a child/children. It is designed to help coparents refocus their relationship to a practical approach focused on the well being and parenting process of the children. A Co-Parenting therapist or parenting coach can offer the tools and strategies to guide coparents into a new way of thinking about how to jointly raise their children while minimizing inconsistencies or 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. Coparenting Therapy is the ideal option where the adult parents want to work towards a true coparenting relationship and are not distracted by toxic stress and high levels of conflict.
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, a team 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 will 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 expected clinical process.
Parenting Plans can be as simple as the settled custody order or as complex as a multi page document addressing many details. The level of detail needed in a parenting plan generally corresponds to the level of existing conflict.
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 always 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 and verbal communication when needed and is appropriate.
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.