Understanding a Child’s Resistance to Visitation   With the increase in claims of parental alienation in custody disputes, family lawyers must understand the fine distinctions between true parental alienation and other forms of visitation refusal. Otherwise, you may claim parental alienation on a case or end up defending against it without fully understanding other options. To avoid barking up the wrong tree, it is imperative to understand the difference between full blown parental alienation, alignment, estrangement, enmeshment, alienating behaviors without resistance and normal developmental visitation refusal. Parental alienation is a...

“Divorce is one of the most financially traumatic things you can go through. Money spent on getting mad or getting even is money wasted.” – Richard Wagner          The collaborative process uses a team based approach to help you and your spouse come to a mutually acceptable agreement, stay out of the courtroom, and move forward with your lives.  You may decide, in consultation with your attorneys, to use a financial neutral within the collaborative process to help you reach agreement about the financial issues. Just how can the financial neutral help you?   Financial Mistrust The financial neutral can help address issues of...

There is an expectation to be transparent, honest, and candid during the collaborative process. It is also an opportunity, due to the safe and secure environment that is created,  to ‘drop bombs’ that might not ordinarily be communicated by the clients one-on-one. In this manner, the safety of the team can become a double edged sword as it can lead to sudden disclosures that rattle the structure and foundation of the process and challenge the team. Using real life situations, the Back from the Brink Workshop will explore the form and content of sudden disclosures and the strategies that can be employed by the collaborative team...

Dr. Gloria Vanderhorst, PhD, in this interview discusses some of the costs of divorce that are not always considered.   She includes references to how Collaborative Practice can help in reducing those costs, both financial AND secondary.   With thanks to the online radio program: Insurance Matters with Mindy Guisewite by Perfect World Network Radio Listen to internet radio with Perfect World Network Radio on Blog Talk Radio qw Gloria Vanderhorst, Ph.D. is a Licensed Psychologist with over 35 years of experi-ence. She is a trained mediator and Collaborative Divorce professional active in a number of professional organizations. She is...

“You do not perceive something until you have the right metaphor to receive it”                                  – Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Metaphors are powerful vehicles of communication.  They synthesize amounts of information into a single, unified package.  Perhaps less obvious, they encourage us to SCREEN OUT aspects of a phenomenon that DO NOT FIT with the chosen metaphor.  Such is the case with the metaphor we currently use to describe divorce and remarriage.  The current metaphors prevent us from seeing important aspects of the divorce/remarriage process and discourage us from moving...