|
AAMFT Summer
Institutes for Advanced Clinical
Training
August
10-14, 2008
Vancouver,
Washington
 Parenting
Coordination: A Family Systems Model of Alternative Dispute
Resolution
Lynelle Yingling, PhD
Over the past several
years, courts have discovered the “magic” we do in family
therapy—how mental health professionals help
separated/divorced families resolve “impossible” conflicts.
This service has come to be called “parenting coordination,”
also known as “PC.” The overall goal is to facilitate
co-parenting through effective communication and structuring
of rules for the binuclear family, which leads to
clarification and effective implementation of court-ordered
parenting plans. This is accomplished without repeated trips
back to court. This work is tailor-made for family therapists
whose expertise is in assessing and intervening to improve
organizational structure, problem solving processes, and
emotional climates in families.
Seven states currently
have state laws which govern the practice or parenting
coordination, while many others are seeking to define the
practice. Licensing boards are increasingly defining PC under
the scope of practice for LMFTs. The current development of
this practice offers a great opportunity for MFTs to build
specialized practices, and inform the legal profession of the
skills we have to accomplish the court’s conflict-management
goal with splitting parents.
This course will
include an overview of what is happening around the country
with legal guidelines for PC practice. It will also cover ways
in which MFTs can market their services as PCs, become
resources to local legal communities, and become leaders in
the ADR (alternative dispute resolution) movement.
Designed for MFTs who
desire to provide PC services for high conflict family court
cases, this course will teach you to:
- understand the role
of the parenting coordinator.
- identify and grow
the skills most helpful in fulfilling this role.
- understand
parenting plans in accordance with state statutory
guidelines .
- practice parenting
coordination in accordance with the AAMFT Code of Ethics,
HIPAA, and other legal guidelines.
- be familiar with
one division’s recommended practice guidelines.
- better understand
the co-parenting process and the emotional needs of
reorganizing families.
- define guidelines
for screening and appropriately responding to family
violence in the PC context.
- explore the ethical
challenges of working in an interdisciplinary context with
family law professionals.
Course Schedule:
Monday, August 11 – Thursday, August 14, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.each day.
This course provides 20 hours of continuing education
Lynelle C. Yingling,
Ph.D., is an AAMFT Clinical Member and licensed marriage
and family therapist who has specialized in developing,
researching, practicing, and training family therapy service
models for reorganizing families in the court system. Dr.
Yingling initiated the first court-ordered private practice
mediation program 25 years ago in Illinois. She was
instrumental in the writing and lobbying for the Texas
parenting coordination statute passage in 2005. Her publishing
and research interests have focused on service models and
family assessment. Following a 20-year career in academia
which included training doctoral level family therapists, she
now owns J&L Human Systems Development which provides
consulting and research as well as direct clinical services.
|
