Viola Vaughan-Eden

Viola Vaughan-Eden has provided child and family counseling services to the Southeastern Virginia community for more than 25 years. Following her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree in 1987, she worked for eight years as a psychotherapist in Norfolk at The Barry Robinson residential treatment center for emotionally and behaviorally troubled youth. Next, she was a founding staff member of a Child Abuse Program that eventually became a nationally accredited Children's Advocacy Center at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. Since 2002, she has been in private practice in Hampton Roads offering mental health services to trauma victims and their families. In 2003, she completed her dissertation on parenting sexually abused children earning a PhD in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. Currently, she is Associate Professor and PhD Program Director with The Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University.

Throughout her career, Dr. Vaughan-Eden has evaluated and consulted on more than 2,000 cases of maltreatment and provided expert testimony more than 500 times. She has trained MSW students, psychology interns, medical residents, physicians, social workers, guardians ad litem, judges, and law enforcement to enhance their awareness of child development, assessment, and treatment. She has served as a consultant and/or expert witness in more than 22 jurisdictions within Virginia as well as California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, DC, and U.S. Federal Court. In order to enhance her understanding of the judicial system, she attended Loyola University Chicago Law School and in 2013 obtained a Master of Jurisprudence in Children’s Law and Policy.

As a result of being an expert witness in family courts for more than 20 years, Dr. Vaughan-Eden is active in establishing Collaborative Divorce Solutions in the Hampton Roads community. Collaborative practice is a non-adversarial process in which couples select a team of professionals to assist them through their divorce. Collaborative Divorce Solutions helps non-violent families resolve co-parenting issues without court involvement. By serving as a child specialist and a divorce coach, she is able to help couples and families get through a difficult process while supporting their sense of self-determination. She found that litigated divorces are often emotionally destructive to families, especially children, therefore she uses collaborative practice as a constructive way to make the transition.