Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems

Abigail M. Judge, PhD, is a clinical and child and family forensic psychologist. Dr. Judge maintains a private practice in Cambridge, MA, is a Forensic Consultant at the Law and Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, and holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Judge provides psychotherapy, consultation, forensic evaluation, expert witness testimony, and reunification intervention. Robin M. Deutsch, Ph.D., ABPP, is a child and family forensic psychologist, board certified in couples and family practice. She is Director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at William James College in Newton, MA, where she developed the Certificate in Child and Family Forensic Issues and the Child and Family Evaluation Service. She is a founding Board member of Overcoming Barriers, was formerly an Associate Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School, and was Director of Training and Forensic Services at the Children and the Law program at Massachusetts General Hospital for over 20 years. She provides mediation, consultation, reunification intervention, expert witness testimony, and parenting coordination services, as well as training for mental health professionals, lawyers, and judges on child custody evaluation, issues related to high-conflict divorce, and parenting coordination.

1. Introduction
Leslie Drozd and Nicholas Bala

Part I: Family-based Interventions: Indicators, models and clinical challenges

2: Clinical decision making in parent-child contact problem cases: Tailoring the intervention to the family's needs
Barbara Fidler and Peggie Ward

3: The current status of outpatient approaches to parent-child contact problems
Shely Polak and Jack Moran

4: More than words: The use of experiential therapies in the treatment of families with parent-child contact problems and parental alienation
Abigail Judge and Rebecca Bailey

5: The perfect storm: High conflict family dynamics, complex therapist reactions and suggestions for clinical management
Abigail Judge and Peggie Ward

Part II: The Overcoming Barriers Approach

6: Overview of the Overcoming Barriers approach
Peggie Ward, Robin Deutsch, and Matt Sullivan

7: Management of the camp experience: The integration of the milieu and the clinical team
Carole Blane, Tyler Sullivan, Daniel Wolfson and Abigail Judge

8: "East Group": Group work with favored parents
Peggie Ward

9: "West Group": Group interventions for rejected parents
Matthew J. Sullivan

10: Common Ground: The Children's Group
Robin Deutsch, Abigail Judge, and Barbara Fidler

11: Co-parenting, parenting and child-focused interventions
Matt Sullivan, Robin Deutsch, and Peggie Ward

12: Translating the Overcoming Barriers approach to outpatient settings
Barbara Fidler, Peggie Ward, and Robin Deutsch

13: Program evaluation, training and dissemination
Michael Saini and Robin Deutsch

14: Conclusion
Janet Johnston