Divorce Coaching
A divorce coach can make a tremendous difference in helping with the settlement of a divorce.
Within the collaborative divorce model, the coach works with the individual to assist them with their grief or their resistance to negotiations. The goal is to provide support while also helping to prepare them for upcoming four way negotiations (where both parties as well as their legal counsel are present). Coaching remains available for those managing change in the aftermath of the divorce.
When necessary, the coach is available to attend negotiation settlement discussions to increase the effectiveness and ease of the communication process.
Child Specialist
Our child specialist service provides assistance to the child, the parents and the collaborative team.
They meet with the parents to discuss their children, their parenting concerns and possible parenting schedules. The child specialist also meets with the child(ren) to assess how they are adjusting after a separation or divorce and to provide information to the parents and team. The child specialist is a neutral party who works with both parents together to assist them to craft an age-appropriate parenting plan.
Child Custody & Parenting Plan Mediation
This service offers parents the opportunity to design a workable and age appropriate parenting plan for children and their post-divorce relationship.
Parenting plan mediation is ideal for the parents who want to have professional direction to create a plan that works for their family without the warfare of a typical divorce. This process can be used in collaboration with the Court, legal counsel, or as a stand alone service.
Parenting plans focus on your child's needs as well as the rights and responsibilities of both parents. Generally, the plan will outline holidays and vacation schedules as well as address the day-to-day sharing of the children. Many parents choose this option before they become involved in the legal system or while they are in the initial stages of divorce. When custody and parenting plans have been resolved, the legal representatives will have the parenting plan which can be entered into the Court as a court order.
Co-Parent Counselling Mild Conflict
During family separation, the number of decisions that need to be made to ensure their child’s healthy adjustment during this trying time can often overwhelm parents.
Co-parenting counselling is a confidential therapeutic service that addresses the co-parenting relationship and children's issues associated with divorce and family separation. Designed for mild parental conflict situations, you will receive valuable information about how children experience family separation as well as communication and negotiation skills to improve your effectiveness as co-parents. This service is not intended for those parents experiencing serious conflict, involved in post-divorce litigation or facing serious allegations.
Court-Involved Parenting Expert Moderate to High Conflict
When parents have become entrenched in litigation and court applications it can be necessary for parents to seek Court intervention to resolve the matter.
Exposure to the ongoing conflict associated with some divorces creates lasting difficulties for children if left unmitigated. Where conflict is moderate to high, the Court of Queen’s Bench and Provincial Family Court can utilize Parenting Experts in a variety of ways to gather more detailed information to support Judicial decision-making. In this role, the Parenting Expert works closely with the Court, legal counsel and the parents under the mandate of a court order to ensure the wellbeing of the children and the continuity of the family stability after a divorce.
Practice Note 7: Voice of the Child evaluative interventions are the most common of the expert interventions provided at Fitch & Associates. These provide valuable insight concerning children who are experiencing divorce, providing them an opportunity to contribute to the way their parents and the Court think about their needs in the decision-making process.
Parenting Coordination Moderate to Severe Conflict
Parenting Coordination is a form of dispute resolution for high conflict families.
This service is designed to assist parents struggling to implement their parenting plan due to the conflicted nature of their post-separation relationship. By establishing protocols and guidelines for communication, parents learn how to regulate their interactions. This post-decree process focuses on reducing conflict and mitigating the risk factors which influence a child's post-divorce adjustment. Through education, assessment, mediation, case management, and decision making, the family's progress is monitored by the parenting coordinator to ensure that parents are fulfilling their obligations to their child while complying with existing parenting orders.
This process is intended to keep the parents out of the court system and moving towards healthier methods of parenting.
Parent-Child Reunification Therapy
In a divorced or separated family, a parent can sometimes lose touch with a child for a variety of reasons.
In a safe and therapeutic setting, a child may be gradually introduced or reintroduced to an estranged parent using a combination of therapeutic groupings. In this setting, a child and parent can explore and develop a healthy relationship, improve attachment, and enhance overall family functioning. In cases of alienation, for example, reunification therapy may be required for relationships to proceed forward in a healthy and collaborative manner. Sessions may focus on effective parent-child communication, healing past trauma, improving the parent's response to the needs of their children, learning appropriate discipline techniques, while decreasing inappropriate interactions between parent and child. It is crucial for all members of the family to participate in this process in order to achieve success.
Therapeutic Visitation
Therapeutic visitation offers parents the opportunity to practice new strategies in responding to their children.
For some parents, this new family structure may be unfamiliar and overwhelming. Other parents may be unable to effectively parent due to addictions, incarceration, or other emotional struggles. There may also be a history of domestic violence that the child has been a victim to or witness of, creating resistance to visitation. As a result, parents may lack the skills necessary to create a healthy parent-child relationship.
In cases in which a parent has been ordered into supervised visitation, they may be required to utilize the services of a family therapist rather than a supervising agency. Unlike a supervisor, the family therapist can provide a safe environment while also giving the parent directives and suggestions to improve their relationship.
