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In addition to assessment and evaluation services, psychologists can also provide treatment services to individuals involved in the court system. This can include adjustment counseling for adults and children involved in divorce proceedings, parenting skills training or anger management counseling for parents with identified psychological problems which present a risk for child abuse, parental mediation services post-divorce to reduce parental conflict and assist in the development of cooperative parenting, and psychological treatment of adult and juvenile offenders whose crimes were committed, at least in part, because of diagnosed psychological factors. This could include anger management counseling, sex offender therapy, counseling to increase victim empathy, substance abuse treatment, or extended psychotherapy for personality disorders. Each of these services is described below. You can scroll through the listings, or link directly to the desired section:
Divorce Adjustment Counseling - Divorce is one of the most traumatic events in anyone's life, but it can be devastating to children. Divorce adjustment counseling can assist adults and children in this difficult transition. Children often react with depression, anger, behavior problems in school and lower academic performance. Younger children frequently regress, and parents observe behavior more common at a much younger age. Some recently toilet trained children begin wetting the bed again, other children resort to talking in baby talk. All of these symptoms are a reflection of the trauma being experienced by these children. Psychological counseling can help children and adolescents to adjust to the changes of divorce, and to minimize the negative impact. Counseling can also help parents to understand the best way to mange their children during this transition period. Adults frequently need counseling to manage divorce as well. This is particularly true for the spouse who does not want a divorce, but is forced to accept it. Depression and anxiety problems are common results, and treatment is designed to minimize the negative impact of the divorce, and help the individual manage the changes thrust upon him/her. Parent-child relationships often change during divorce, and parents need help learning how to cope with new responsibilities. Custodial parents often feel overwhelmed by the increased responsibility of being a single parent, and also experience considerable anger toward their spouse, which sometimes is translated into interference with visitation. Non-custodial parents may have to manage their children alone for the first time in their lives. Some tend to withdraw, rather than face the responsibility, while others simply do not know how to care for young children. All of these issues are appropriate for counseling and psychotherapy. Top of Page and Navigation Bar
Parenting Skills Training - Developmental psychologists have completed research on different parenting styles, the effects of discipline, and how children respond to various people and life events, such as divorce, stepparents, abuse, or parental substance abuse. This knowledge base has allowed psychologists to develop effective intervention strategies for children and families. Psychologists can teach parents how to manage their children's behavior effectively, how to intervene with specific child and adolescent problems, and how to help newly divorced parents to manage their children during the transition of living in two households. Psychologists help parents understand what children need from adults to foster emotional and intellectual development. Parenting skills training may focus on general parent-child interactions. Often, the goal is to help parents avoid abusive or nonproductive parenting responses by learning more effective ways of managing child behavior. Additionally, parents can be taught strategies for managing children with special needs, such as ADHD children, children adjusting to divorce, and children diagnosed with specific psychological behavioral problems. Parenting is the most important responsibility facing an individual with children. Unfortunately, no one provides us with clear guidelines about the right way to parent. Psychologists have studied what works, and what doesn't work. Parenting skills training passes this knowledge onto parents. Top of Page and Navigation Bar
Anger Management - Anger is a common human emotion. We are most likely to feel anger when we believe that we are being treated unfairly, when we think we are getting a bad deal, or when we feel we are being singled out for poor treatment. Experiencing anger is not automatically a problem, except when we react aggressively toward others out of anger. Anger is closely tied to frustration and aggression, and acts of aggression often result in legal consequences. Forensic counseling for anger management usually occurs in child abuse, domestic violence or assault cases. When a parent has been found to lose control with a child, the parent will be required to receive anger control counseling as a condition of contact with the child. After a domestic violence incident, the perpetrator will usually be required to enter counseling to acknowledge responsibility for the aggressive acts, and to learn how to maintain control when angry. Assault often results from uncontrolled impulses, and those charged or convicted can benefit from counseling. When court ordered, the counseling is usually supervised through probation to insure compliance. Anger management counseling involves development of cognitive awareness of the thought processes that result in anger and loss of control, and learning self-control techniques to utilize when angry. Relaxation skills, stress management techniques and cognitive therapy interventions are used in combination to assist the individual with anger control. At times, medication is also used to reduce stress, anxiety and impulsiveness. Top of Page and Navigation Bar
Post Divorce Parental Mediation - In many states, mediation is mandated as part of the divorce process to minimize the adversarial relationship between the parties. Divorce mediation is an attempt to coax the couple into working out reasonable compromises about their financial settlement and custody arrangements. Post divorce mediation is also designed to encourage compromise, but focuses mainly on the parental responsibilities of the parties, and is intended to maximize the potential for healthy emotional development of the children. The custody arrangement may award primary physical custody to one parent, with visitation for the other parent, or it may divide physical custody between the parents. Shared physical custody assumes that each parent will take responsibility for major developmental tasks during child development, including academic performance, moral education, life planning and health maintenance. Post divorce parental mediation is designed to assist parents in achieving this goal. Top of Page and Navigation Bar
Treatment of Psychological Trauma - Psychological trauma can result from almost any physical injury, especially if the injury occurs within a life-threatening event. Injuries that are physically disfiguring or those which disable primary adaptive functions are more likely to result in psychological trauma. Additionally, psychological trauma can occur in the absence of any significant physical injury, either as the result of witnessing trauma in others, or following personal escape from serious injury following a traumatic event. Psychological trauma may result in a post traumatic stress response (the most commonly expected diagnosis), but it can also cause depression, specific phobias, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety, or dissociation and psychosis. The treatment of psychological trauma depends partially on the type of emotional problem being presented, but cognitive and behavioral treatment approaches work very well. Cognitive treatment involves identifying the emotional meaning of the trauma, or how the trauma is linked to fear, anxiety and depression. Changing the emotional meaning of the event is essential for the treatment to be effective. Behavioral approaches involve teaching the individual relaxation skills, pain management skills, and desensitizing the individual to trauma cues. This last process combines relaxation skills with mental imagery and sometimes real-life practice facing the feared situation. The amount of time needed to treat psychological trauma depends on the extent of the trauma, but can require more than a year of psychotherapy. Even then, most severe trauma will leave some permanent psychological scars. Top of Page and Navigation Bar
Psychotherapy and Counseling for Offenders - Psychotherapy is a process by which you examine your thoughts, feelings, actions and relationships, evaluate where problems exist, and learn how to make whatever changes are necessary to achieve better life adjustment and satisfaction. Counseling and psychotherapy are interchangeable because they describe the same process, and have similar goals. Many criminal acts are linked to psychological problems that can be treated. In fact, if more psychological treatment was provided to offenders, we could reduce the recidivism rate considerably. Within correctional institutions, psychotherapy services for inmates has been mostly abandoned because of cost and poor results. However, psychological treatment provided privately, on an outpatient basis, either as a condition of probation or parole, can help convicted individuals learn how to interact appropriately within society, while shifting the cost to the offender. Obviously, not all offenders are amenable to treatment, but if psychological evaluation indicates that treatment would reduce recidivism, then it can be provided on court order. Violent offenders, sexual offenders, and some individuals who commit crimes because they do not empathize with victims are potential recipients of this psychotherapy. For some offenders, the presence of personality disorders demands long term treatment to achieve results. For juvenile offenders, psychotherapy is frequently indicated, and can be especially helpful in the rehabilitation process. |
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Donald J. Franklin, Ph.D. is a NJ licensed psychologist (#2244) |
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