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UA to host co-parenting, high conflict interdisciplinary seminar

SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter

Published: March 25, 2019

When children grow up in high-conflict environments due to ongoing parenting disputes and other issues it can affect their ability to build healthy relationships and lead productive lives in the future, said Pamela Schulze, professor and director of the Center for Family Studies at The University of Akron.

“While disagreements among parents over how to raise a child are normal, when the problems become intense and chronic it can be harmful to everyone involved, especially the children,” said Schulze. “The impact is often apparent at school and bubbles over in many other settings, which can present difficult challenges for those professionals who support families and children.”

To assist lawyers, social workers, counselors, psychologists, educators and other types of professionals in better understanding and managing the conflicts, UA’s Center for Family Studies, The University of Akron School of Law, the Akron Bar Association and other community organizations are sponsoring an interdisciplinary seminar on Thursday, March 28 titled “Co-Parenting and High Conflict: Arguing, Alienation and Angst.”

“The program seeks to provide information about the current state of research and practice in a variety of disciplines, with the end goal of setting a community agenda as to how we can effectively meet the needs of practitioners and families in our community dealing with high-conflict parenting situations,” said Schulze.

Family law attorney and therapist Bill Eddy, co-founder and training director of the High Conflict Institute will give the keynote address.

“There are three possibilities in a high-conflict parenting case—one parent is acting badly, one parent is making untrue allegations about the other parent or both parents are acting badly.

“Because of the three possibilities, which all look alike on the surface, it can take months or years to figure them out in family court,” said Eddy. “This means families are going back to court over and over again, without one or both of them changing their own behavior as they are preoccupied with telling the court about the other parent’s behavior.”

In an effort to help professionals resolve the disputes faster, Eddy and the High Conflict Institute developed the New Ways for Families method, which teaches both parents a set of skills for decision-making, communicating and co-parenting their children.

“It often takes a court order to get parents to participate in learning these skills since high-conflict parents usually think they don’t need it themselves,” said Eddy. “But when both are ordered to learn these skills, they are less defensive and most do learn a lot and appreciate it afterwards.”

“We are hopeful to have an audience of over 100 professionals, including lawyers, mental health professionals, social service workers and government officials who can learn from each other as to how we can improve our response to high-conflict families in our region,” said Schulze.

The seminar gets underway on March 28 at 8 a.m. and runs through 4:30 p.m. at the C. Blake McDowell Law Center.

The program has been approved for seven CLE and MCE credits and approval for CSWMFT credit is pending.

The cost of the seminar ranges from $210 for Akron Law alumni and Akron Bar Association members to $15 for students. Community members are welcome to attend and pay $35.

For more information on the seminar or to register, go to akronbar.org and click on CLE calendar.


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