Washington Chapter                Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

Fourth Annual Conference 

 

We are ready to offer you another outstanding line-up of Training Opportunities at the 4th Annual WA AFCC Conference  to be held Saturday, March 15th, 2014 at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle.

 

FRONTIERS OF FAMILY PRACTICE

         

Morning Plenary Sessions with noted author and speaker, Dr. Phil Stahl (joined by Stacy Heard, J.D.) addressing “Deconstructing Child Custody Evaluations.”

 

The second morning plenary is by another outstanding speaker and author, Dr. Leslie Drozd who presents on the issue of “Decision Trees for Complex Parenting Plan Evaluations.” Attorneys, judges, mental health workers, and GAL’s will find these topics to be practical and insightful for formulating better case presentation and challenging faulty evaluations conducted by others.  There will be a special afternoon workshop by these authors on the advances in Relocation Cases which also reflect their noted scholarship in the field.  

The afternoon provides six  90 minute break-out meetings to choose from including  sessions on:

Reducing Confirmatory Bias (Rybicki, Benjamin & McGlothin), 

Using a Sex-Pert (Keilin & Wheeler), 

What Drives Conflict (Baumann), 

The Pros and Cons of Shared Parenting (Fainsilber Katz, Wheeler & Hutchins-Cook), 

Child Sexual Abuse Risk Assessment (Lee), and 

Current Advances in Relocation Case Analysis (Stahl, Drozd, Heard)

Register Now!For your convenience, you can use this Link to Register Now, or review more about conference details below and use another link further down the page to register. 

 

Saturday March 15, 2014 Conference Schedule and Program Description 

8:30 to 12:00         Morning Plenary Sessions 

Opening Greetings –   Dana Dean Doering  -- Chapter President and             Daniel Rybicki, Psy.D., - Conference Coordinator 

8:45 to 10:45 -- Phil Stahl, Ph.D., and Stacy Heard, J.D. --  Deconstructing Child Custody Evaluations

Child custody evaluations are subject to sources of error, bias and distortion. Even the best constructed parenting evaluations may have weakness which detract from the practical utility of the recommendations and findings. Methodological problems, omissions in data collection, inadvertent bias factors, and failures to establish a logical nexus from the data to the recommendations can yield inferior results for the Court. This presentation will offer an outline of common sources of error and omission and provide a combination of scientific, forensic mental health, and legal perspectives on the topic. 

11:00 to 12:00  -- Leslie Drozd, Ph.D.--  Using Decision Trees in Complex Custody Cases       

Recent interest in cognitive error and flawed decision making have prompted the development of checklists and tools to reduce human biases and inadvertent error from disrupting the process of conducting child custody evaluations. In a field where many levels of complexity and competing hypotheses must be critically examined and judiciously studied, the use of decision-tree methods is a valuable asset for streamlining the collection and integration of data into cogent findings which lead to logical conclusions and recommendations. This presentation will be of interest to attorneys and judges who can use the checklists to evaluate the quality of custody evaluation reports. 

    -----//-----//-----//-----//-----

12:00 to 1:15    Member Meeting, Mingle and Buffet Luncheon    Lobby Lounge 

Tickets available for non-members who are encouraged to attend, see registration form for details. Business meeting for WA AFCC Chapter, social networking;                          

Others, Lunch on Your Own

-----//-----//-----//-----//-----

1:15 to 2:45   Afternoon Concurrent Workshop Series   A-C

Track A   -- Daniel Rybicki, Psy.D. , Andrew Benjamin, J.D., Ph.D., and Dennis McGlothin, J.D.

Minimizing Confirmatory Bias in Custody Evaluations

The presentation will focus upon Washington moving toward a uniform procedure that minimizes confirmatory bias and the participant’s perception of bias in custody evaluations. We will review the AFCC guidelines, WAC 246-924-445, and guidelines for effective testimony. The panel will discuss why consistency in parenting evaluation methods may be desirable. Reducing confirmation bias will assist judges and fact finders in giving appropriate weight to custody and parenting evaluations; assist peer review of custody and parenting evaluations; increase each participant’s perception the procedures were fair and unbiased; and minimize the negative impact of confirmatory bias on parenting plan decisions. 

Track B  -- Jennifer Keilin, M.S.W., and Jennifer Wheeler, Ph.D. 

Using a Sex-Pert

Parenting evaluations often address complicated sexual issues, including allegations of sexual addiction, problematic sexual boundaries, and other sex-related concerns that may impact parenting, increase risk to children, and/or simply unnerve the evaluator. Learn common types of sexual issues that arise during evaluations, the types of services a psychosexual expert offers, including consultation and psychological evaluation, and when and how to best use a psychosexual expert during a parenting evaluation.

Part I: Introduction; Who we are and what we do; Sexual behaviors potentially relevant to parenting evaluations.

Part II: Psychosexual experts: What they can (and cannot) do for you; What is “sex-pertise”? Psychosexual assessment; Considerations for risk management.

Part III: Case examples; What would you do?

Track C    -- Mark Baumann, J.D.

Brains on Conflict: How the Science of Danger and Relationship Inform Conflict Resolvers

Conflict is deeply impacted by neurobiopsychological drives designed to protect us from danger and also stay in relationship. This workshop will summarize the science and review the significance for conflict resolvers.Flowing out of the science and understanding of what drives conflict are three key concepts guiding what legal professionals can do with the information. We will explore the concept of professional equipoise, the crucial elements of connecting and listening, and provide a 4-step process for helping people resolve perceived danger, stay in relationship, and integrate their body-brain functioning to enhance problem solving skills. A detailed case study will be presented along with some quick experientials. This workshop is informed by the presenter’s experience working with and applying Bill Eddy’s material and additional graduate credit certificates training in interpersonal neurobiology.

-----//-----//-----//-----//-----

Afternoon Break  2:45- 3:00

-----//-----//-----//-----//-----

Concurrent Afternoon Sessions D-F    3:00-4:30       

Track D  --- Philip Stahl, Ph.D., Leslie Drozd, Ph.D., and Stacy Heard, J.D.

Updates on Relocation Assessment: Mental Health and Legal Perspectives, Regional Guidelines and Larger Body of Research Informed Paradigms

Washington relies upon language in RCW 26.09.520 and related case law to determine best interest plans for relocation cases. The presenters will summarize recent developments in relevant research on relocation outcomes as a starting point for their discussion of competing models and paradigms for conducting relocation assessments. Information in this workshop will be relevant to mental health providers and guardian ad litem who conduct such assessments. Attorneys and judicial officers will find the information useful from both a legal perspective and from the perspective of consumers of psychological research.

Track E  --- Jeff Lee, Ph.D.        

Challenges of Risk Assessment in Custody Cases Involving Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse 

Child sexual abuse allegations in custody battles are difficult because they present unique challenges to the evaluator and attorneys.  Often, the evaluator is asked to assess and opine a level of risk and recommendations to, ideally, prevent offenses.  Given the many limitations of current risk measures and the difficulty of assessing sexual abuse allegations, these challenges can be very difficult.  This presentation will address the many obstacles an evaluator and attorney should consider, provide critical information (e.g., base rates) to consider when evaluating such allegations, provide a model for conducting such evaluations, and provide safety considerations for parenting plans.

Track F  -- Lynn Fainsilber Katz, Ph.D., Jennifer Wheeler, Ph.D., and Wendy Hutchins-Cook, Ph.D., ABPP

The Pros and Cons of Shared Parenting: Current Research and Implications for Practice 

When parents separate children may enter into new living arrangements with in a manner determined by parents or with recommendations and decisions by attorneys, therapists, evaluators and the courts.  Increasingly, legal and mental health professionals are considering parent’s requests for equal or near equal parenting time.  Shared parenting is a controversial topic in family law, with strongly held and divergent opinions.  The purpose of this workshop is to provide participants with an overview of issues involved in determinations of shared parenting. We will present a summary of current research related to living arrangements, father's involvement and impact on psychosocial adjustment of children, and discuss  typical shared parenting arrangements. A new framework of shared parenting that includes attention to both residential time and the parental relationship will be outlined and implications of this for the best interests of the child and impact on parents will be discussed. The pros and cons of shared parenting will be described with attention to special issues (e.g., infants and overnights, adolescents, high conflict families and special needs children).

 

Register Now!Registration includes program materials, training and refreshments. Members will be holding a lunch meeting and mingle (buffet lunch served). Tickets are available for non-members to join the lunch meeting, otherwise lunch is on your own. Register early for savings. Class size is limited, so sign up soon. 

Program materials will be distributed on-line and by way of USB flash drive as PDF documents. Session materials will not be distributed in print form at the conference. High speed wireless internet is available at the Washington Athletic Club for a fee. 

Parking fees are not included. There are several public lots nearby and a parking facility used by the WAC is about a half-block north on Sixth. Public transportation is also available.

Lodging: Please make your own travel arrangements. A limited number of rooms are available at the WAC for WA AFCC attendees. Other major hotel chains such as the Sheraton are within easy walking distance. 

Who Should Attend?  

Attorneys, Guardian Ad Litem,  Judicial Officers, Psychologists, Mental Health Professionals, Researchers and Treatment Providers involved with Family Law and Dependency Court custody matters. 

More information on Learning Objectives, Presenter Bio's and Continuing Education Credit information is available at our website www.wa-afcc.net 

 

For other program and registration inquiries, contact WA AFCC

at  (253) 858-8850, Dr. Daniel Rybicki. 

Continuing Education Credits:

The Washington State Bar has approved this program for up to 6.0 hours of Continuing Legal Education (Activity ID: 355804). WA AFCC is an approved provider for continuing education credits under the guidelines set forth by the NASW-WA chapter (Provider # 1975-312). Up to 6.0 hours of Continuing Education Credit is available with this program.

The training program hs been reviewed by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Psychologists may earn up to 6.0 hours of continuing education credit. AFCC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. AFCC maintains responsibility for the program and its content.