Parents with continuing disputes and litigation about their children following divorce present a difficult problem for courts, lawyers and mental health professionals, and increase their children’s risk of adjustment problems. For parenting coordinators, Special Masters, mediators, custody evaluators, lawyers, divorce counselors, therapists and other professionals who work with high-conflict families.

Participants in this two-day workshop will:

• Understand the most recent empirical and clinical research on high conflict parents and their children and what makes these parents so difficult;
• Understand the hybrid nature of the parenting coordinator (Special Master) role that includes parent education, mediation, and where authorized, arbitration, and how the parenting coordinator process helps reduce parent conflict and address children’s needs;
• Understand the distinctions between serving as a Special Master and therapy, custody evaluation, child representation or representing parents;
• Learn about parenting coordinator objectives, types of disputes settled, best practices, models, and critical elements in court orders or parent consent agreements;
• Understand the technical, ethical, clinical, and personal issues in serving as a parenting coordinator (Special Master);
• Learn from case examples, group exercises, and practice dispute analysis and decision-making.