New Ways For Families - Professional Information

Who Is Involved?

Judges, lawyers, therapists, and possibly mediators, collaborative professionals and parenting coordinators.

This interdisciplinary approach requires the cooperation of all professionals in addressing high conflict clients in the court process. While each professional plays a different role, the goal of all involved is to help parents focus on making positive changes rather than becoming preoccupied with defending themselves and blaming the other parent.

While it is designed to save courts time and parents money in many cases, using New Ways For Families™ requires a significant shift in attitude toward high conflict clients. 

• Lawyers need to focus their clients on identifying and presenting neutral information about parenting behavior problems.
• Judges need to emphasize validating and motivating clients for future change, rather than emphasizing past      behavior (while still making findings about past behavior when necessary).
• Therapists should be less involved in court decision-making, and more involved in counseling clients to overcome past barriers to learning new skills.
• Parents should be more involved in presenting neutral behavioral information to the court and demonstrating their own new skills to the court.

There are growing indications that many judges, lawyers, therapists and parents are ready for such a change in the family court process.

Who Coordinates the Case?

The Parent-Child Counselor coordinates the case, after receiving a Coordination Letter from each parent after their first Individual Counseling session.

Do Professionals Need New Ways Training?
Yes, in order for this program to be effective in reducing high-conflict behavior, all professionals are encouraged to take a 2-day training. All Individual and Parent-Child Counselors are required to take the 2-day training in order to be on a local New Ways list and on our New Ways website list of certified counsellors. The Day One training explains the dynamics of high-conflict personalities and the structure and research basis for the New Ways for Families method. The Day Two training provides advanced skills for working with high-conflict families, including practice exercises for all four steps of the New Ways method, since this method contains several paradigm shifts in working with potentially high-conflict families. Even a 3-hour training for judicial officers and lawyers can be very beneficial. Please contact us for information about our New Ways for Families training: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 619-221-9108.

Why Is Confidentiality Important?

An essential part of New Ways for Families™ is that the Individual Counseling is confidential. This counselor does not write a letter, declaration, or report to the court. If they are unable to reach a parenting agreement, the parents report back to the court what they have learned, without having to disclose what was said in the therapy sessions. At most, the Individual Counselor signs a Verification that shows the client completed the counseling and their Parent Workbook.

The benefit of this approach is that the therapist can focus on helping the client learn new skills, rather than focusing on the past, the client's negative feelings about the other party, or the court battle. The therapeutic alliance would be built around learning new skills.

The Parent-Child Counselor is not confidential. This counselor may be called by the court to testify as to his or her observations of the parent-child interaction during the Parent-Child Counseling sessions, if both parents sign releases. However, this counselor does not speak with the Individual Parent Counselor, does not write a report or recommendation, and does not testify as an expert.

Further, the therapist would only be guided in the goals of the therapy, not the methods. Therefore, the therapist would use his or her own style and skills to accomplish these goals, rather than being told how to do this by the court.

What About Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse?

In domestic violence cases and substance abuse cases, this counseling would be in addition to other mandated group treatment programs. These group programs have been demonstrated to be effective and often necessary for these specific problems. However, these programs often do not have as substantial an impact without the addition of individual counseling which would be offered by New Ways For Families™.
 

Cost to Courts
Courts do not incur a cost to implement or manage the program. New Ways should result in short- and long-term savings by providing litigants with structured skills-building tasks, which shifts their focus from complaining about the other party to practicing their own skills and being accountable for their own behavior. No major court changes are required to use New Ways, and it can be ordered under existing statute as parent and/or child counseling in most jurisdictions.
 

Cost to Parents
Parents do incur a cost to participate in New Ways. These costs vary depending on the hourly rates of therapists per jurisdiction. On average, each parent would pay approximately $600-$1500 for the entire program. This is not expensive given the potential cost of high-conflict litigation to the parents after paying attorney fees for hearings and trial.

Visit our Books and Products section to purchase the New Ways Professional Guidebook, Parent Workbooks, or the New Ways Introduction for Professionals 1-hour demonstration DVD.