Plenary 3 | GAL Track | Minimizing bias and premature closure: A rubric for the evaluation and adjudication of resist refuse dynamics (qualifies for 1.5 GAL credit)

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Lawyers, evaluators, and the courts are more and more frequently faced with polarized family systems, that is, children who are aligned with one parent and reject the other. We must resist the urge to force these families into black/white, good guy/bad guy biases. This presentation discusses the many common and co-occurring practical pressures and relationship dynamics associated with these resist/refuse cases. A rubric is introduced useful for more fully and accurately understanding each child's unique circumstance and the remedies that flow therefrom. 

Learning objectives:

• Recognize and actively reject binary formulations of complex family dynamics.
• Distinguish diagnoses from dynamics as they bear on our work with conflicted family systems.
• Understand and begin to recognize the many co-occurring variables that are associated with resist/refuse presentations, particularly alienation, estrangement, enmeshment, and the chameleon child.
• Adopt the Rubric as a means of minimizing bias, avoiding premature closure, better understanding and serving the needs of children.

Speaker: Dr. Benjamin D. Garber, Ph.D., Family Law Consulting, PLLC, Hollis, NH

Opinions and positions stated by presenters of MoBarCLE programs are those of the presenters and not necessarily those of The Missouri Bar. This program is intended as information for lawyers in Missouri, in conjunction with other research they deem necessary, in the exercise of their independent judgment.