Dealing With Difficult Parents (W12) CD

Workshop

Working with separating and divorcing parents can be especially challenging when parents behave in ways that undermine cooperative co-parenting partnerships and that defy professional guidance. Parents exhibit a wide range of difficult behaviors, such as: undermining the relationship with the other parent, poor emotion regulation, constant litigation, lack of compliance with court orders, poor boundaries, among others. This multi-disciplinary panel of a family court judge, minors' counsel, family court mediator/evaluator and a private psychotherapist will discuss the more difficult situations presented in their work with parents. There will also be discussion of techniques to manage these situations and to deal with these difficult parents in ways that might reduce stress and better address the best interests of the children. The panel will also address the professionals' roles and how we react, respond and behave in complex situations, and how to make good choices about our own behavior and boundary setting.