Parent Facilitator

A parent facilitator is a neutral third party to help parents who have divorced work through conflicts and to implement parenting plans. They assist parents in making joint decisions about important issues such as education health care issues, and extracurricular activities. The goal of the process is to develop a business-like relationship for the parents to prevent exposure of the child/children to the negative effects of parental conflict. Research indicates the long-term negative impact on children involved in a high conflict divorce include: emotional, relational and academic issues. The higher the conflict the more likely the children will experience depression, anxiety, and conduct issues.

A parenting facilitator assists parents to resolve conflicts and develop problem solving skills. However, the work that the parenting facilitator does is not confidential. Parenting facilitators can testify about their work with families. Parenting facilitators often take more of a supervisory role, making sure that parents comply with the parenting plan and act in the best interests of their children. Parent Facilitators are appointed by court order to minimize legal costs and court appearances.

Both parenting coordinators and parenting facilitators help parents:

Identify problem areas
Clarify priorities
Reduce the number of misunderstandings
Agree on dispute resolution methods
Develop strategies to help collaborative parenting
Understand and implement the possession and access provisions of parenting plans

Parent Coordinator

Parenting coordination is a child-focused alternative dispute resolution process in which a mental health or legal professional with mediation training and experience assists high conflict parents to implement their parenting plan by facilitating the resolution of their disputes in a timely manner, educating parents about children’s needs, and with prior approval of the parties and/or the court, making decisions within the scope of the court order or appointment contract. The overall objective of parenting coordination is to assist high conflict parents to implement their parenting plan, to monitor compliance with the details of the plan, to resolve conflicts regarding their children and the parenting plan in a timely manner, and to protect and sustain safe, healthy and meaningful parent-child relationships. A parenting coordinator is a neutral third party to help parents who are divorced to work through conflicts and implement their parenting plans. The court appoints a parenting coordinator after holding a hearing to determine whether there is a need for a parenting coordinator. Parenting coordinators work with high-conflict families to help parents make joint decisions about areas such as education, health care issues, extracurricular activities and similar matters. The work that the parenting coordinator does with families is confidential, meaning that the parenting coordinator cannot testify about what happens during the sessions with families.

Co-Parenting Coach

The role of the Co-Parenting Coach is to provide parents with necessary knowledge about child development, children’s changing needs, what to expect as families evolve over time. They provide assistance setting realistic goals for the children and for their co-parenting relationship. They assess for each child’s unique needs and provide assistance for the parents to be attuned to the child’s specific challenges. Provide assistance to increase parenting skills and to set up parenting plans with tools to handle challenges.

A Co-Parenting coach can be utilized both during the separation and divorce process and post-divorce. This is not a court ordered position and is useful to begin a more “business like” approach to the parenting plan. It can be instrumental to prevent the adoption of unhealthy communication and parenting habits during the early Co-Parent relationship. The long-term benefits for both parents and children can be very beneficial.

101 Southwestern Blvd. | Suite 105 | Sugar Land, TX 7747