Working with Separating Parents: Innovative Approaches to Develop a Child-Centered Practice

An innovative and unique three-part training for all professionals who work with divorcing and separating parents and families. So often, creating a parenting plan becomes all about getting an agreement, but truly helping families to restructure goes far beyond the calendar. Led by parenting expert and author of Parenting Apart Christina McGhee along with Mosten Guthrie’s own Susan Guthrie and Alison Beck, this training will help Collaborative Professionals, mediators and other family and divorce professionals shift the way they work with parents to cut the conflict and help them create a new family paradigm that stands the test of time. Gain valuable skills and tools to help co-parents focus on the needs of the kids and increase your effectiveness working with families in transition. 

The training is broken down into three separate modules which can be taken independently or all together for the full program. Each day has four hours of training and a 30-minute break. The full course is approved for 12 hours of California MCLE and 12 Hours for California Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists (via CAMFT). Professionals in other states can request credit approval from their governing organizations.

All three days will be resource-intensive with take-away materials and actionable tools that will be easily and immediately integrated into your practice and work with clients!
Day One: The Emotional Process of Divorce for Parents and Kids April 8th,   9am-1:30pm PT (12pm-4:30 ET)

Tools, Skills and Topics we will cover:

• Strategies professionals can use to get coparents focused on kids instead of each other.
• Skills for engaging with parents and helping clients get unstuck. 
• A comprehensive understanding of the impact of stress on decision-making and coparenting. 
• An overview of the different ways parents and children manage the stages of loss.
• How reactions to loss can create misconceptions and escalate conflict.
• Dynamics of healthy and unhealthy coping for parents and children.

Day Two: Age and Developmental Stages + Parenting Plans April 20th,  9am-1:30pm PT (12pm-4:30 ET) 

Tools, Skills and Topics we will cover:

• Understanding the “expected” developmental needs of children at each age and stage.
• How age and various developmental stages impact the way children react to divorce.
• Key issues coparents need to consider at each stage.
•  How these play into parenting plans.
• Information and strategies for creating a child-centered parenting plan.
• Parenting time vs. Parenting Responsibility. 

Day Three: The Four CORE Tenets of Successful Co-Parenting April 27th, 9am-1:30pm PT (12pm-4:30 ET)

Tools, Skills and Topics we will cover:

• Identifying early-stage challenges for coparents.
• Why logic and reason doesn’t work and what to do instead.
• What moves children from at risk to resilient.
• Skills for navigating issues using a child-centered approach.
• Shifts that help coparents manage differences constructively.
• The critical components of redefining family life for children after the split.
• How to engage parents with support around specialized issues of domestic violence, mental health, and more.
• Incorporating tech resources, tools and mediation skills into your practice to help coparents.

Each day’s program will incorporate the use of film, case studies, training, discussion and more and participants will receive templates, forms, resources and more for immediate use in their practice!