Family Specialists

Family Specialists serve a variety of roles to Collaborative law. They may assist family members as a Coach or Child Specialist. Some may serve as a Coach in one team/case and as a Child Specialist in another. These professionals can be licensed psychologists holding Masters or Doctorate degrees, or licensed clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, or Masters in social work.

Often a Family Specialist will serve as a Facilitator in a case, essentially managing the process for you, your family and the experts working with you. They may serve as your primary contact and assist the team as a type of case manager to keep the process on track and productive.

The Divorce Coach has experience working with adults and families facing the challenges of major life transitions. The Coach brings skills in the areas of communication, conflict resolution, co-parenting, and stress or emotional management.

The Divorce Coach helps each client individually, and in meetings with the spouse and his/her coach, by addressing the ‘human side’ of divorce. The Divorce Coach assures that each spouse has the opportunity to tell his/her story, identify possible conflicts, and help the client to express goals, needs, and desires in a safe environment.

In Collaborative Practice, mental health professionals do not serve as therapists, but rather as counselors, assisting clients with the emotional aspects of divorce and helping facilitate the resolution of conflicts in the process.

A Child Specialist is a licensed mental health professional with specific training in the Collaborative Divorce Process. The Child Specialist has expertise in the areas of family therapy, child development, child and adolescent therapy, families in life transitions, co-parent counseling and child custody and placement issues.

The Collaborative Child Specialist does not function in the role of a therapist for your family. The Child Specialist remains neutral throughout the Collaborative Process to assure that each family member is free to speak. Children are often silent participants in divorce, and Collaborative recognizes that children are profoundly impacted by their parents’ divorce.

Remaining neutral, the Child Specialist is able to provide the parents, and the team, with valuable information, options, ideas and suggestions that reflect the best interests of the children. However, parents always have final decision making responsibilities regarding their children.

Divorce often poses emotional challenges to a family, and the Family Specialist, in any number of roles, is there to help you, your spouse and your children, sometimes even with adult children.