Evidence-Informed Interventions for Court-Involved Families: Promoting Healthy Coping and Development

Children who experience parental divorce or trauma, particularly when these are accompanied by conflict, face increased risks to their health and adjustment. While many children adjust well, a sizeable number will experience long periods in which parents are in conflict or the family is involved with the courts. These children's needs may differ from other children and quality early intervention is critical. With chapters by an acclaimed international group of authors, this book provides the go to reference for understanding and providing appropriate services for these children and families, informed by the best available research and professional literature.

Lyn R. Greenberg, PhD, ABPP, provides parenting coordination, consultation, treatment and intervention services to court-involved children and families, as well as forensic expert and consultation services to attorneys and training/consultation services to mental health professionals. Speciality areas include interventions for complex child custody cases, including those involving children with special needs. She is a recipient of the AFCC Meyer Elkin's Award for this work. She served on the AFCC task force on Court Involved Therapists, co-edited the journal of Child Custody special issue on court-involved therapy, and has been recognized by the Society of Family Psychology for her work. She has been widely published on issues related to separation and divorce, child custody, ethics, child abuse, and treatment and other interventions for court involved and high conflict families. She presents and provides professional training both locally, nationally, and internationally.

Dr. Barbara J. Fidler, PhD, CPsych, AccFM, FDRP PC is a clinical developmental psychologist. She has worked with high conflict separation/divorce providing various dispute resolution services for over 34 years. She provides professional consultations and trainings to judges, lawyers, mediators and mental health professionals. Dr. Fidler is co-author of four books: two on child custody assessments and two on parent-child contact problems. She has authored many book chapters and journal articles, including three chapters in the recently published, Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems: Family-Based Interventions for Resistance, Rejection, and Alienation (2017). Dr. Fidler has been actively involved in the development and training of parenting coordination and sits on the AFCC Taskforce charged with updating the practice guidelines.

Michael A. Saini, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, and holds the endowed Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work and the Co-Director of the Combined J.D. and M.S.W. program. He is a Board Member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and an editorial board member for the Family Court Review and the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. He provides risk management consultation for working with families involved in high conflict child custody disputes, he leads parent groups for separated families, he provides parent coaching, and for the past 18 years, he has been conducting custody evaluations and assisting children's counsel for the Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario. He has over 100 publications, including books, book chapters, government reports, systematic reviews and peer-reviewed journal articles. His publications have focused on access to justice, child custody disputes, interparental conflict, intimate partner violence, alienation, cultural dynamics of separated families, supervised visitation, virtual visitation, child protection services and parent competencies post separation and divorce.