Course Description

Part 1 "The Impact of Divorce on Children: What Does the Research Actually Tell Us?"
Part 2 "Gatekeeping: A Part of Every Evaluation"
Part 3 "AA: Dealing with Allegations of Addictions (drug and internet/porn) and Alienation in Custody Disputes"
Part 4 "Hypothesis Testing/Report Writing and Cross-examination. Let's Practice: The Use of Technology and Doing Remote Evaluations"

The seminar is divided into four sections covering a wide range of topics related to conducting child custody evaluations.

The first section covers the impact of divorce on children. When custody evaluators make recommendations regarding parenting time it is critical that they understand what factors are likely to contribute to a child having a difficult adjustment to the divorce and a parenting schedule and what factors can reduce the likelihood of harm.

The second section will focus on Gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is increasingly becoming a critical aspect of all child custody evaluations. Given statutes regarding the need to address how parents support or do not support children’s relationship with their other parent, it is critical that this be assessed in all child custody evaluations. A model for the assessment of gatekeeping will be addressed.

The third section will cover “hot topics” in child custody evaluations including issues of addiction, such as alcohol and drug addiction. It will also cover issues regarding internet and pornography behavior and discuss how these are similar and different to substance use addictions. Another “hot topic” in child custody evaluations is regarding alienation. Professionals still debate on whether it is a syndrome or disorder as some professionals continue to support the belief it should be in the DSM. Others disagree. Up to date information on how various professionals formulate the concept of alienation will be discussed and why it should not be considered a disorder. A focus will be on defining terms and describing behavior rather than using labels.

The fourth section will cover the importance of hypothesis testing in child custody evaluations. Examples of how to use hypothesis testing will be presented as well as a discussion of how and when to document it. The importance of hypothesis testing will be addressed as a major component of every aspect of the child custody evaluation. This section will also cover report writing and how to include hypothesis testing in the child custody evaluation report. How to present the results of the evaluation in court will also be addressed. Finally, given the rapid change in the field of child custody evaluations due to COVID, the use of technology and its impact on child custody evaluations will be addressed.

Course Goal and Objectives

 At the conclusion of this program:

1. Participants will identify 5 main factors that impact children’s adjustment to divorce
2. Participants will be able to define types of gatekeeping
3. Participants will be able to describe a model for the assessment of gatekeeping
4. Attendees will identify similarities and differences between substance use addictions and internet/porn addictions
5. Participants will be able to describe the different formulations of alienation
6. Attendees will be able to describe how to integrate hypothesis testing into their evaluations and reports
7. Attendees will learn how to write an Integrative report
8. Participants will be able to describe how to use technology in remote evaluations while providing protection to clients and the evaluation.      

Registration Information     $260.00

CE Approval Information   The Steve Frankel Group, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for Psychologists. This course is also approved by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) for its licentiates' CE license renewal requirements. Pursuant toCalifornia Rules of Court, rules 5.225(d)(1)-(3)(5)-(21), the outline or agenda submitted satisfies the requirements of the rule for 8 hours toward initial 40 hours evaluator training, and annual 8 hours of evaluator continuing education

Your access to the course material extends for 1-year from the date of purchase. This includes after passing the post-test, so you may continue to review its contents.