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The AFCC eNEWS is the monthly e-newsletter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. The eNEWS provides up-to-date information for professionals including practice tips, international news, and the latest initiatives in family law and conflict resolution. Views expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily those of AFCC or its leadership.  The AFCC eNEWS is provided at no charge to you; anyone can subscribe.

AFCC eNews

Ask the Experts

Jennifer Myers Harrison, PsyD, ABPP, ATR-BC

A Trauma-Informed Lens for Family Court: 10 Tips for Applying It Across Roles

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Families arrive in our courtrooms and offices at some of the hardest moments of their lives. Many carry histories of harm that long predate the case in front of us, and the legal process itself can stir those histories back to the surface. A trauma-informed lens helps us see this clearly. It does not ask every professional to become a therapist, and it does not ask us to set aside neutrality or critical judgment. It asks us to understand how adversity and fear shape behavior, and to do our work in a way that does not add to the harm.

What follows are ten practical considerations for bringing that lens to family court, whatever role we play. Judges, evaluators, mediators, parenting coordinators, minor's counsel, attorneys, and treating clinicians each have a different vantage point, but the lens is available to all of us.

Hon. Tom Altobelli

AFCC President's Message

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Bernard of Chartes was a 12th century French philosopher and teacher. He is credited with the metaphor that modern thinkers are but ‘dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants’. Isaac Newton adapted this metaphor in the 17th century when he wrote in a letter: ‘if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’

This metaphor applies not just to modern thinkers, but to modern leaders.

As your new President, at this very humbling highlight in my life as a family law professional, I too feel that I am standing on the shoulders of giants. I stand on the shoulders of the past presidents of this great organisation, foremost of whom is my colleague and friend, AFCC now past President, Hon. Dolores Bomrad. Her quiet wisdom, total selflessness, enormous insight and humility has steered AFCC into another successful year.

Ask the Experts

Premela G. Deck, JD, PhD, LICSW

Introducing Parent-Child Contact Cases: A Guide to Aligning Professionals Using a Systems Perspective

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If you have ever worked on a case involving a child who refuses to see a parent, you already know how quickly things can unravel — not just within the family, but among the professionals trying to help them.

Picture this: an attorney for the favored parent is convinced the other parent is dangerous and files emergency motions accordingly. A therapist working with the rejected parent shares, candidly, that they believe the child is being "brainwashed." The child's therapist, having only ever met with one parent, produces notes that read more like an advocacy document than a clinical record. Meanwhile, the family therapist — who was appointed to work with the whole system — is fielding calls from lawyers who want to know when she'll be "recommending" the child resume overnight visits. No one is collaborating. No one is certain what anyone else's role actually is. And the family, watching all of this unfold, is more entrenched than ever.

Sound familiar?

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About

AFCC is the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts – the premier interdisciplinary international association of professionals dedicated to the resolution of family conflict. AFCC members include many of the leading practitioners, researchers, educators and policymakers in the family court arena. AFCC provides training and education, and does not license, certify, or regulate the practice of its members.

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