1. Legal and Ethical Concerns
Legal and Ethical ConcernsI need the writer that did paper Topic Case Conceptualization for
Children Affected by DivorceOrder Number 81472806 to complete this one as they go
together.PLEASE!Legal and Ethical ConcernsResources• Attributes and Evaluation of
Discussion Contributions.• Professional Communications and Writing Guide.What are the
ethical and legal concerns in working with children? In your initial post for this discussion,
include considerations of both divorce and custody issues as well as the roles that
therapists may be asked to take.ReadingsUse your Gil text to complete the following:• Read
Chapter 7, “ A Hero’ s Journey: A Boy Who Lost His Parents and Found Himself,” pages
117– 148. Using a complicated case involving divorce, abandonment, foster care, abuse, and
neglect, this chapter illustrates the impact of these issues on development of self.Use the
Capella University Library to complete the following:• Read Ablow, Measelle, Cowan, and
Cowan, 2009, “ Linking Marital Conflict and Children’ s Adjustment: The Role of Young
Children’ s Perceptions,” from Journal of Family Psychology, volume 23, issue 4, pages
485– 499. This article reviews issues of marital conflict and their impact on children.• Read
Kenny, 2000, “ Working with Children of Divorce and Their Families,” from Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research, Practice, Training, volume 37, issue 3, pages 228– 239. This article adds
to our understanding of all aspects of this issue, including confidentiality.Children, Divorce,
and the LawLaunch Presentation | TranscriptPlay Therapy Resource PortalLaunch
PresentationChild Case Study BackgroundsLaunch PresentationMultimedia• Click Launch
Presentation to listen to Children, Divorce, and the Law, an interview with an attorney who
works with parents in the midst of divorce. The interview focuses on the effects of the
divorce on the children involved.• Click Launch Presentation to access Play Therapy
Resource Portal.• Click Launch Presentation to access Child Case Study Backgrounds.Name
JaredGender MaleAge 4Heritage African American-ScottishSpirituality Baptist,
practicingPresenting Symptoms Hitting and cussing in pre-kindergartenStrength Areas
Loves rap music, loves to dance to rap music, very close to his mother’ s younger sister;
relationship strong and positive, Sorita and mother are doing well in schoolDevelopmental
Moderately delayed in several developmental areas: social skills, awareness of feelings,
slightly lagging in large and fine motor skillsDiagnosis NAFamily of Origin —
-Mother
MalitaFather Not present, not involvedCaregivers Living with mother and
grandmotherSiblings NoneSchool Public pre-kindergartenSocio-economic Status Making
efforts to transitioning to working classInterests / Hobbies Loves to dance and singPets
NoneOther Jared hits and cusses at pre-kindergarten. He presents as a very angry little boy.
2. He has never met his father and he and his mother have lived with his grandmother and his
mother’ s younger sister, Sorita (who is 15) all of his life. His mother Malita has recently
graduated from a community college and is in training to become a registered nurse. His
grandmother has cared for him with his aunt, while his mother has worked and attended
college since his birth.Jared’ s mother is working and attending school and reports that she
feels terrible about not spending enough time with Jared. Jared spends a lot of time with
Sorita, who is an, highly motivated student, like her older sister Sorita enjoys her time
caring for Jared although she wishes she had more time to go out and see her friends.
Jared’ s grandmother reports that she regrets her daughters did not have relationships with
their fathers, and she thinks that this is the root of Jared’ s problems. She Grandmother has
sought some help from their church minister, who has suggested that he spend time with a
male mentor from their congregation. The grandmother is experiencing some chronic
physical problems that sap her energy.Grandmother also reports that men have not been
present in the family going back as far as she can recall. She feels both angry and helpless
about this history. She herself reports that her own mother was an alcoholic and that in
spite of this history, She has improved her life from that of her siblings (three brothers and
two sisters), whom she has little or no contact. Two of her brothers have been imprisoned,
and the third died in gang violence as a teenager.Mother, Auntie,
GrandmotherUPDATE:Jared is now seven years old and has been doing pretty well in
second grade. He continues to live with his grandmother, mother, aunt, and now an uncle
who was released from prison about four months ago. His mother is working as a nurse
locally and his aunt is now attending a community college and is less able to care for him.
His uncle has been taking over and helping as he can. The grandmother’ s health is
beginning to decline and she also finds caring for Jared difficult. Through the school, Jared
was diagnosed with learning disabilities. He is doing better now that he is getting special
help, though he remains in a regular classroom. About two months ago, a friend of the uncle
was staying with the family and Jared’ s behavior changed very quickly. He tried to drown a
neighbor’ s cat, started a fire in the yard, and approached a toddler boy, the child of a
neighbor, sexually. His aunt insisted that they take him to the advocacy center where it was
determined that he was sexually abused (fondled) by the friend of the uncle. This man
quickly left the home and state. Jared has now been brought in for treatment.BooksGil, E.
(2010). Working with children to heal interpersonal trauma: The power of play. New York,
NY: The Guilford Press. ISBN: 9781606238929.Halstead, R. W., Pehrsson, D., & Mullen, J. A.
(2011). Counseling children: A core issues approach. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling
Association. ISBN: 9781556202834.Children, Divorce, and the
Law________________________________________Dr. Hilda Glazer:Carol, welcome to Capella’ s course
5252, Applications and Play Therapy. As you know this course is for counselors and
therapists; focuses on the ways in which play therapy may be used as an intervention in a
variety of special situation.In this unit we have been working on the special difficulties that
children may experience when their parents divorce. As an attorney, often handling divorce
cases, you have experienced in these situations.Carol Fey:Yes, I do. My legal practice focuses
on divorce and dissolution, both in a traditional sense and also involving unmarried couples
who parent together. Unfortunately, as we both know in our separate practices, too often
3. when adults have some difficulties in their relationships with each other, their children
become dramatically impacted by that dispute.Sometimes parents try to have their children
take sides in the adult disagreement or in a custody determination. They may try to, for lack
of a better description to win the approval of their children, if you will. Children can often
end up feeling very much a part of the dispute; they may even feel as if they are the actual
cause of the controversy between the adults. Of course, that is seldom the actual situation
and it is not the way that parents even usually, rationally want them to feel, but it often
happens in cases of divorces and other adult breakups.Dr. Hilda Glazer:It is really not
unusual for a child therapist, as an advocate for the child to be called to testify in a custody
hearing. A therapist, what kinds of issues can be asked about and what are the limits of what
we can testify to in a general sort of way?Carol Fey:Well, that is a really complicated
question and I will probably end up talking for a little while here, so let me see if I can go
with this in piecemeal. Let me start by saying this, you have said, it is not unusual for a child
therapist as an advocate for the child to be called to testify.However, it is helpful to realize
that the role of a person who testifies in court is not to act as an advocate for one side or the
other, but rather to bring facts and sometimes informed opinions to the attention of the
judge or the trial effect, who is making the ultimate decision. So you are really not there as
an advocate when you are there as a therapist witness, you are there to provide certain
kinds of information.The evidence gathered in a trial or a hearing related to child custody
has to meet certain criteria described in the courts Rule of Evidence; that is a very broad
topic. For purposes of this discussion, the most important part is to know that there two
kinds of witnesses.One kind is a Lay Witness and the other kind is an Expert Witness.Now,
those terms are Terms of Art, just because a therapist may in some cases only testify as a lay
witness, it does not mean that the therapist is not an expert in that field, these are
definitions to be aware of simply for purposes of court.As a therapist if you are called as a
witness, you can basically provide two kinds of information.The first is factual information
and the second is opinion.A child’ s personal therapist who has been involved with the child
for the child’ s personal benefit could legitimately be called as a witness to provide facts
about the therapy, and these are basically in the category of a lay witness. We are not
looking at complicated experiments; we are not looking at complicated testing. We are
looking at what has happened in the course of the relationship of play therapy.And by facts,
I mean things that you as a therapist can document. For example, when did the child first
come into therapy with you? Who made the initial appointment? How many visits has the
child had with you? About how long is each visit? Who has participated in the session, has it
always been the same parent or have both parents participated? Have they participated
separately or together?Has the therapist have a session that involved either or both
parents? If so how has the child reacted to one or the other parent, when both are in your
presence? When they are all together, how does the child react? When the child is with one
parent, how does the child react, if it is different? Are you aware of any differences in the
child’ s appearance, when the child collides with one parent as opposed to the other
parent? Is the child’ s demeanor any different when the child arrives with one parent,
versus the other parent, that kind of information?Those are the things that can appear in
your notes and probably you do record in your notes and are things that we cannot know as
4. in the courtroom setting unless you bring them to our attention from your own information.
So it is information that is potentially helpful to a trial effect. But is very limited, and you
will know that none of that that I said suggest that you would testify as to whether one or
the other parent should have custody.So, what have you been told are the reasons that the
child is in therapy with you that would be helpful information. We would like to know why
the child is in therapy, from your standpoint. Perhaps you could testify us to whether you
have given either of the parents any advices to have assist the child with the issues that
were raised. What advice that you have given, and do you happen to know, not just suspect,
but know whether that parent has followed your advice.And one more point to make while I
cover this topic is that a therapist’ s notes can also be subpoenaed in the court. So, I would
suggest that every time when you develop your practice notes, every time you meet with a
particular patient, you anticipate that you your notes might some day be viewed by
someone else. I would suggest that a therapist limit note taking to what the therapist
observes as opposed to more wide ranging thoughts.You might know the follow up question
to ask a parent later, but make sure that in your notes that these marked as just questions to
consider.It is really best to keep your records to the basic stacks of the actual play therapy
relationship, the dates of service, who came, who participated and how, and a few
observations, perhaps about whether the child seemed happy at the end of therapy, that in
the beginning how the child reacted with each parent and so forth. I hope that is helpful.Dr.
Hilda Glazer:Oh, very much, so thank you. And it reminds everybody how important the
clinical notes are and that they can be subpoenaed, which means somebody else is going to
read them. And the idea of making sure that they are factual, I think it is a good reminder to
everybody.So, at last I have seen those parents, I really cannot testify about them. I cannot
testify on behalf of one parent against the other, if I have not seen both of them.Carol
Fey:Well, I can actually make that even more expensive. I don not think that your role as a
therapist is to testify for or against anyone, and it is really limited. Let us go back to thinking
about what an expert witness is, as opposed to what a lay witness is. As I understand play
therapy, basically you are there to assist a child getting their own personal response to a
situation that the child is experiencing because of the conflict between their parents, at least
for purposes of this discussion. So in that sense, your focus is on the child.In order to qualify
as an expert witness who would be giving testimony as to potentially who might be more
prone to be in the child’ s best interest as a custodian or what those limits would be, it
would involve more than seeing the parents in a play therapy situation along with the child.
It would involve forensic testing, it would involve extensive interviews.And in fact, the
courts do sometimes in contested custody matters, appoint a therapist, not a play therapist
typically, but a therapist to especially trained in custody evaluations, who do complicated
testing and interviews with each of the parents individually, who meet with the children as
well, who do forensic testing on all of those things, and then write up reports based on that
kind of information. And honestly that is far and beyond what the typical play therapist
would have exposure to.So, really in my opinion just to reemphasize, it is just not the role of
a child’ s therapist to testify for or against either parent. It is not really that therapist’ s role
to offer an opinion of all this to who should have custody, but therapist’ s role is just way
more narrow than that. And it is important to I think, to help the attorneys who try to
5. involve therapists, really learn how limited that role is, not that it is not important to the
child, but for purposes of court, how limited that information really is in making a custody
evaluation.Dr. Hilda Glazer:So we have to remember that we are there for the child.Carol
Fey:Absolutely. And you are there to help the child, not to be a witness. I mean, really, we all
recognize, and I as an attorney recognizes that I would never have the complete information
about a situation, I only have what I am exposed to and typically I am an advocate for one
parent or the other. So, I do not see what happens when that person is in a different
situation. You as a therapist would see the child in a therapy situation, but you do not see
what happens in each of the homes and do the more comprehensive overall evaluations. So,
really it is important to remember the limits of the information that we have.And to not
overstate them in an effort to help the child, when we rally not have that complicated
information, but the more comprehensive information.Dr. Hilda Glazer:Okay. Let me just
change the focus a bit. Since all of us may some day be called to be a witness, what advice
can you give us about being a witness in a court proceeding?Carol Fey:That is a really
important question, and honestly, the first thing I would advice a therapist to do when you
are called as a witness and you will be some day. Attorneys do contact therapist, attorneys
contact everybody they can come up with that might be helpful in terms of the testimonial
they are presenting.So the first thing I would do is to contact the attorney who is calling you
as a witness, and offer to discuss why it is you are being called as a witness. I would strongly
suggest that you emphasize how limited your role is for purposes of the hearing. But your
focus is on assisting the child with the child’ s feelings and reactions to the parents’
conflict, or whatever situation they have happened to be in. And if you must testify, then you
would feel qualified to offer only limited kinds of information. For example, honestly, you
could say what can best be said even in a letter.Jamie came in for twelve visits, she has an
ADHD condition that has been diagnosed by her pediatrician. She is experiencing some
difficulty, because her peers make fun of her, she forgets her homework, she daydreams,
she gets sidetracked in class. I have met with her mother as well; I provided some books on
ADHD and suggested that she meet more frequently with Jamie’ s teacher. I understand that
she has been doing that, and that Jamie seems to be feeling better about her differences in
terms of the reactions that I have experienced with her in therapy.Now while the therapy —
and I am getting off this now in terms of the actual advice, but more to help you look at it,
while the therapy is designed to help the child, and that is your focus, but reality is that in
this limited role of therapist, it is just not particularly useful in a court setting. That does not
mean you would not be called to court as witness, because attorneys may not fully
understand those limits. Helping an attorney to see just how little of the overall facts you
can really provide, may help the attorney see that it would not be all that helpful to call you,
and that will honestly save a lot of aggravation.I do not know any therapist who enjoys
going to trial to testify, and I know that at least in the therapist that I am in touch with, that
seems to be one of the things they prefer to avoid. That is true for a variety of reasons; it is
very impractical to schedule, it is very sort of heart-wrenching, and it can be difficult to
experience. But the basic information or the basic reason why therapists tend to want to
avoid participating in trials is that their focus is really narrowly on helping the child, and
6. not in terms of trying to make overall life-changing decisions about custody.Dr. Hilda
Glazer:
