SLIDE 3 4/8/2020 3
The benefits of mediation
“Mediation helps to reduce coparenting conflict, and it also reduces the likelihood that parents will enter adversary legal processes that, on average, increase coparenting conflict.”
Sbarra, D.A., Emery, R.E., (2008). Deeper Into Divorce: Using Actor-Partner Analyses to Explore Systematic Differences in Coparenting Conflict Following Custody Dispute Resolution. Journal of Family Psychology 22(1), 144-152.
The importance of mental health professionals
We know that families are moving targets as they travel through the life
- span. They are constantly in motion as
each individual moves through their own developmental trajectory in relation to
- ther family members. By definition we
know that families will finish the divorce process in a different place than where they started. With our help it will hopefully be a better one, or at the very least, the best possible one. As family therapists working with divorcing families, we are often working with preexisting problems that may have been a part of causing the separation or have been exacerbated by the separation and are getting in the way of the divorce process. By identifying and addressing these problems as much as possible, the families not only resolve the problems of the divorce but also have the
- pportunity to increase the well-being of
the entire family for the future.
Gamache, S.J., (2015). Family Peacemaking with an Interdisciplinary Team: A Therapist’s Perspective. Family Court Review, 53(3), 378-387.
Interdisciplinary teams
“Divorce is, in part, a legal event that requires resolution
- f disputes, drafting of agreements, and filing appropriate
documents with the court. However, those are hardly the only needs of parents and children in reorganizing families. Parents need financial planning to manage the pressures of setting up two households. Their children sometimes need a mental health assessment and support to deal with their acting out and educational difficulties in reaction to parental conflict. Parents, in some cases, need mental health therapy for depression or treatment for alcoholism. Couples need assistance in moving past their anger and hurt to resolve financial issues pertaining to the divorce and to develop a strategy for co-parenting in the future.”
Pruett, M.K., Schepard, A., Cornett, L., Gerety, C., Love Kourlis, R. (2018). Law Students on Interdisciplinary, Problem-Solving Teams: An Empirical Evaluation of Educational Outcomes at the University Of Denver's Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families. Family Court Review, 56(1), 100-118.
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