Overview Of Psychological Services for Family Court

Psychological consultations for family court are unique, because the psychologist is ethically required to represent the best interests of the children, whether asked to provide consultation and assessment services by either parent, an agency (such as DYFS), or by the court. Most often, psychologists are asked to provide custody and/or visitation evaluations, to determine what custody arrangement is best for the children. This may also include an assessment of risk factors relating to potential abuse. Psychologists also provide many other services for family court: 

• Psychologists mediate custody and visitation issues between parents;
• Psychologists assess parent-child conflict areas and propose remediation plans;
• Psychologists supervise visitation when a parent has an emotional or substance abuse problem;
• Psychologists evaluate the potential risk to a child when a parent has emotional or substance abuse problems;
• Psychologists assess the impact of the grandparent relationship, and determine the appropriateness of grandparent visitation when the parents object;
• Psychologists screen potential foster parents and/or adoptive parents;
• Psychologists complete domestic violence evaluations;
• Psychologists assess the potential impact of termination of parental rights; and
• Psychologists provide psychotherapy and counseling, parent-child family counseling, parenting skills training, therapeutic supervised visitation, anger management, divorce adjustment counseling for children and/or adults, and parental communication skills training to family members as indicated.

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