What Every Psychotherapist Needs to Know About Divorce: Know the Factors that Create Good Break Ups
– Stephen H. Sulmeyer, JD, PhD [CLASS]

Narrative:

Divorce has traditionally been viewed as a battle, fought by vicious litigators who specialize in scorched-earth tactics, that leaves both of the parties, and especially their children, as the losers in the process.  A great deal of excellent research has been done on the effects of such battles on the parties and the children, with which clinicians need to be conversant.  At the same time, the ways in which couples divorce has been changing continually since the advent of divorce mediation in the 1970s, which in turn has generated further research.  Given the fact that in California over 50% of first marriages end in divorce, clinicians need to understand what factors tend to be correlated with good and poor outcomes during and after divorce, as well as be familiar with the various modalities available to assist divorcing couples to get through the dissolution process in an optimal way.  Such information, when coupled with particular clinical skills including empathy and attention to psychodynamic details, can help clinicians to work optimally with individual patients who are coping with the process and aftermath of divorce.

In this training, the instructor will familiarize psychologists and other therapists with the basic research on litigated and non-litigated divorces, including the emotional and developmental effects on parents and children, as well as introduce participants to the various alternatives that now exist to traditional adversarial litigation.  Participants will learn the risk, resilience and stabilizing factors that are associated with various divorce and post-divorce scenarios.  Attention will also be given to high-conflict couples, including the effect of conflict on children, and the various options available to help such individuals co-parent and resolve disputes post-separation.  This information will be synthesized to help clinicians work optimally with divorcing patients, both in terms of maximizing resilience of parent and children, and in terms of parenting post-divorce.

Stephen H. Sulmeyer, JD, PhD is a mediator with JAMS in San Francisco.  He specializes in complex and high-conflict disputes in a wide range of subject areas, including family and divorce, probate and elder, family businesses, business/commercial, intellectual property, employment, discrimination, partnerships, and community matters.   In addition to his work as a lawyer and mediator, Steve has a clinical psychology practice in Marin County, California, and works as a collaborative family specialist (coach).  He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sophia University), in Palo Alto, California, where he taught as a member of the adjunct faculty.  He is the co-founder (with Judge Verna Adams) of the Marin Superior Court’s interdisciplinary settlement conference program, in which mental health professionals and lawyers team up to assist judges in settling custody and other cases.  He is also the founder and past president of Integrative Mediation Bay Area, a group that teams up mental health professionals and attorneys in a conjoint mediation model in family law and other cases.

COST: 

CIP Member: 

$75 early registration, up to 10 days prior to seminar, $90 after

Non-Members:

Non-member Rate: $100 early registration, up to 10 days prior to seminar, $110 after

CEs:

4 CEs for LMFTs, LCSWs, and Psychologists

Community Institute for Psychotherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Community Institute for Psychotherapy maintains responsibility for these programs and their contents.

Accommodations will be made wherever possible to those with disabilities.  Please let us know of any disabilities upon registration, to ensure proper accommodations are put in place prior to workshop/training.

Cancellations must be received in writing 10 business days prior to the seminar or class for a refund minus a $25 cancellation fee.

This event will take place on Zoom. Please register for the event to receive the link.