The primary goals of Parent Coordination include:

1.)  Monitoring the parental behaviors to ensure that they honor their court order/settlement;

2.)  Assessing allegations of any kind, including alienation and reporting back to attorneys and Guardian Ad Litem;

3.) Teaching parents effective communication and negotiation skills where they control impulses and remain positively child focused.

Parent Coordination is not confidential and is not psychotherapy.  Information is shared with the parent’s attorney to update them on compliance and noncompliance with the goals.  The challenge posed by high-conflict families vary in severity.  Therefore, the degree of success varies.  Even when parents remain unwilling or unable to collaborate or co-parent, at least they can learn important ways to shield their children from parental warfare and achieve a parallel parenting arrangement.  When ordered, the Parent Coordinator can testify and provide the court needed information for decision-making about the families.  Additionally, a psycho-educational video-based eight week group is available for mild to moderate conflict families.

 This new service helps parents maximize collaboration, minimize conflict and to enhance the lives of children in two household families.

 Parent coordination requires an official appointment, either by court order, stipulation by attorney or parental agreement with the Parent Coordinator.

How is this program different from a mandated divorce seminar? 

Four or six hour seminars are intended to give parents an overview of the divorce process, the impact of conflict on their child and some dos and don’ts to keep their child out of the middle. While most divorce seminars are didactic in nature, parent coordination goes much further than an educational program.  Parent coordination is a form of ADR for high conflict families to resolve parenting issues as part of their divorce or post divorce.  Some parents appointed a parent coordinator may also attend an eight week psycho-educational program along with their joint parenting sessions.