Is force feeding not working for you? Try the Restorative Approach!
Parents in conflict you say?
Dear Professionals
In high conflict cases we see the benefits of using a team-based approach, we provide therapists for the child and family therapy for the parents. We do that with the expectation that we can go into court and provide exact schedules to reunite parents with their children
But as a legal profession can we do better to maximize the benefits of the mental health professionals assigned to our cases? The answer is simply yes, yes and yes. We need to listen.
There are times when a mental health professional will need TIME to help repair relationships between parent and child. That may mean not having a fixed schedule between parent and child for a short time. That's honestly ok. Less stress for the child, less conflict for the parents less force-feeding.
When do we know when a case is ripe for this? Typically when the mhp tells us so. You trusted this mhp to be involved in this case, let them provide some recommendations that will maximize your goal of reconciling a broken relationship between child and court.
This will be a restorative approach in nature - yes you can leave it to the mhps to come up with the planning and design for your goal to be implemented. When you can make sure to use your amicus to make sure the plan is legally palatable. If everyone stays in their lane the team based approach will reap greater benefits than this force feeding plan of yours.
Sorry just venting today!