New Articles in the Journal of Child Custody, March 2014


Here are four articles in the March 2014 issue of the Journal of Child Custody.  

Di Stefano, G., & Cyr, F. (2014). Child adjustment following parental separation: The role of maternal well-being, parenting quality, and household income. Journal of Child Custody, 11(1), 5-24.  doi:10.1080/15379418.2014.892802

Froyd, D. “., & Cain, D. J. (2014). Toward a humanistic approach to child custody mediation: A delicate balance. Journal of Child Custody, 11(1), 41-60. doi:10.1080/15379418.2014.892803

Garber, B. D. (2014). The chameleon child: Children as actors in the high conflict divorce drama. Journal of Child Custody, 11(1), 25-40. doi:10.1080/15379418.2014.892805

Lennings, C. J., Brummert Lennings, H. I., Bussey, K., & Taylor, A. J. (2014). Family risk assessment: Characteristics of families with child abuse notifications in australia. Journal of Child Custody, 11(1), 61-75. doi:10.1080/15379418.2014.892804

One thought on “New Articles in the Journal of Child Custody, March 2014

  1. Winning Your Case Depends On You
    By Joseph Goldberg, Consultant

    Anyone fighting over child custody, visitation
    rights or, decision making as a non-custodial
    parent should listen closely, because there are
    not a lot of professionals that give advise to
    lawyers in quite the way that I do.

    In high conflict divorce and separation cases,
    if a parent makes a false allegation of abuse
    or destabilizes a child’s trust in the other
    parent or exposes the child to adult information
    or badmouths the other parent to the child or
    interferes with visit-
    ation or blocks a child from telephone access
    or uses a sibling to interfere with the other
    parents authority, then this parent is program-
    ming the child with parental alienation.

    If you haven’t heard about parental alienation,
    you have a lot to learn. I would recommend
    you google: parental alienation education.
    For others that know about it and continue to
    litigate and re-litigate this issue without
    success, let me explain why things aren’t get-
    ting better.

    Spoiler Alert
    This is going to sound self-serving but it
    doesn’t make it any less true.

    # 1 reason why things are not getting better:

    You depend on a lawyer that’s not getting any
    input from an expert in parental alienation, or
    the situation is worse you’re acting pro per. I
    want you to know there’s a far better solution
    but it requires making a crucial decision.

    A. decision to hire a consultant.

    When you hire a consultant, they can tell you,
    “what is parental alienation” and “ what isn’t
    parental alienation. “ Unless you don’t really
    care, and if you don’t care, you’re only hold-
    ing yourself back. Is that fair to you ?

    Judges are not interested in two parents that
    are totally at opposite ends in their parenting
    style and polarized. That won’t help any
    parent-child relational problem. Judges in this
    scenario will tune you out and look to appoint
    some type of professional to give them guid-
    ance i.e., a lawyer for the child, a mediator, a
    parenting co -ordinator, a child therapist, a
    custody evaluator, a supervisor of visitation, a
    family therapist or a judge could decide to
    empower a child to choose whether or not to
    see or communicate with a parent they reject.

    Many parents cannot afford a lawyer because
    they believe that it will cost more than they can
    afford. Sadly that is not always true because
    they may have money but they’re just not sure
    how far that money can go. You need a
    consultant to answer that concern.. In this
    situation a parent can hire a consultant to select
    a lawyer to work with them in an unbundled
    legal services agreement.

    When this happens two things start to change.

    The first thing to change is that you now have a
    lawyer and the other thing to change is that you
    now have the best lawyer you could ever hope
    to find. Why ? Because your consultant gives
    the lawyer the input he or she needs to win
    your case. I’ve been involved in many cases of
    David versus Goliath, and I’ve seen the lawyer
    with the $1,000. hourly rate lose. Money doesn’t
    win in court, the better argument does.

    A competent lawyer becomes a very good law-
    yer because of the input he or she receives
    from the consultant. Stop looking for parental
    alienation lawyers and focus on finding a
    consultant available to help.

    By the way, I define a win as an intervention
    that restores and repairs the bond between the
    alienated child and the rejected parent. A win
    is not defined by getting sole custody or get –
    ting 50/50 time sharing.

    Still wondering why you need a consultant ?

    Lawyers are not going to admit their short-
    comings because if they did you would be look-
    ing for a better lawyer. So they won’t admit
    that in your particular case they haven’t got a
    clue where to begin.

    A lawyer will not spend the time or bill you for
    the time it takes to identify the cause of the
    ruptured relationships within your family. There
    are only two ways to get to that answer; a full
    psychological evaluation of all the members of
    the family, or hire a consultant with an expertise
    in parental child relational problems. The later is
    less costly, and provides voluminous additional
    help.

    Did your lawyer screw the pooch in selecting a
    mental health professional to begin counseling
    for your child and or for your family ? Did your
    lawyer come to some backdoor agreement with
    the opposing counsel to select a mental health
    professional without you knowing who they are
    or even why they were agreed to ?

    Are you stuck in a situation where a mental
    health professional is actually making things
    worse,not better ?

    If that sounds like your situation then of course
    you need to hire a consultant, because if you
    don’t, things will change again, your parent-
    child relationship is going to get much worse
    and that is not even the worst part, the worst
    part is that your child won’t be getting the treat-
    ment they need for themselves. Can you turn
    your back on your child, and give up knowing
    that ?

    Please call a consultant before you do.

    Cases often have mental health professionals
    with the best of intentions practicing outside
    their areas of expertise, it’s unethical, it’s un-
    professional, but getting them to step aside so
    a competent practitioner can take their place is
    not going to happen without the help of a
    consultant.

    Trust me when I say that if this is your reality
    today, you’re in the quicksand and I’m the one
    trying to throw you the rope.

    Many times a parent will ask me during a
    consultation if I will talk to their lawyer before
    they hire me and I say no. Lawyers do not
    understand what I do, and cannot recommend
    someone that provides a service they’re not
    that familiar with and why should they ?

    I will tell you this much, after I have read the
    case files I do talk to their lawyers and as soon
    as they hear my strategy in the case they’re
    grateful for my involvement.

    That is why your case depends on you. Nobody
    can tell you if its smart to hire a consultant but
    you.

    I also know when a parent calls for a consult-
    tion just to get a little free advice. Often times
    a parent pretends to be a parent of an alien-
    ated child and they aren’t, they just want a few
    tips or an advantage over the other parent,
    some have been accused of alienation and want
    to know what to expect.

    It’s not that different when a lawyer tells an
    alienating parent they can’t help them to seize
    custody unless they can get some proof that the
    other parent is a really bad parent or proof that
    the child is in fear of the other parent, even if it’
    might be totally untrue.

    The truth is that parents are falsely accused of
    parental alienation just the same as parents are
    falsely accused of child abuse. I have the good
    fortune of helping parents on both sides of this
    issue. When you’re accused of alienation you
    need a consultant to rule it in or to rule it out.
    Taking a chance without a consultant is a sure
    bet that you’ll get a poor outcome in court, it’s
    all up to you.

    Nobody can guarantee that you will win your
    case, but let me put it this way, your best option
    is to hire that consultant. Share this article.
    Visit my website at http://www.ParentalAlienation.ca