Donald J. Franklin, Ph.D., a New Jersey licensed psychologist, provides forensic psychological services, as well as counseling and psychotherapy, psychological testing, and marriage and family counseling to adults, children and teens, using cognitive and  behavioral psychological treatment procedures.

Psychologists train extensively to prepare for private practice. Dr. Franklin has a bachelor's degree (BA) from Bucknell University, a master's (MA) from Seton Hall University, and a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) from Fordham University. Details concerning his Educational Background are described elsewhere.

Since 1987, Donald J. Franklin, Ph.D. has been engaged in private practice as a NJ licensed psychologist (#2244).  Prior to becoming licensed for private practice, Dr. Franklin worked extensively, under supervision, in the community mental health system providing psychological treatment services, as well as providing supervision and training to other mental health professionals. Details concerning his forensic and clinical experience are described below:

Experience

Forensic Consulting - Dr. Franklin provides a wide range of forensic psychological services. He has experience providing diagnostic evaluations, psychological testing, consulting services, and counseling services to individuals involved in civil, family and criminal court proceedings. His forensic psychology consulting experience is described below:

• Diagnostic Evaluations - Diagnostic evaluations identify the presence of psychological problems, and determine whether their is a relationship between a psychological problem and specific acts or circumstances.  For family court, Dr. Franklin has evaluated the stability of parents, the appropriateness of family reunification following abuse or neglect, the suitability of a parent to adopt, the psychological needs or limitations of children, the appropriateness of waiver for adolescents accused of crimes, risk factors in parental visitation, custody decisions, and the psychological treatment needs of adolescents.  For civil court, he has evaluated possible causal relationships between trauma and psychological problems, the potential for malingering, possible cognitive and/or memory deficits, the need for guardianship, capacity to execute or change a will, and psychological autopsies in suspected suicides. For criminal court, Dr. Franklin has completed evaluations for pre-sentencing recommendations for both adolescents and adults, assessed the presence of repetitive and compulsive sentencing factors in sex offenders, evaluated factors related to competency to stand trial, competency at the time of a criminal act, capacity to form intent, mitigating factors for sentencing, and the reliability of child witnesses. 
• Psychological Testing - Psychological testing is used as part of a diagnostic psychological evaluation. Dr. Franklin has experience with intelligence testing, assessment of personality factors and personality disorders, memory assessment, evaluation of potential malingered memory problems, identification of pathological psychological conditions, assessment of the severity of depression and anxiety, assessment of parental risk for child abuse, and gross assessment of cognitive functioning and potential organic brain damage.
• Consulting Services - This involves assisting attorneys by providing them with information, advice and/or education about psychological factors that are relevant to legal issues in a case. Dr. Franklin has experience providing a variety of consultation services: Assistance in preparing cross examination questions to be used to challenge another expert; review of records and recommendations regarding the relevant factors; reviewing expert psychological reports and identifying the inconsistencies and weaknesses in the arguments; explaining the long term impact of psychological factors; explaining the relevant differences between different psychological diagnoses, and many other similar consulting services.
• Counseling Services - Psychotherapy and counseling provided for forensic clients is different from standard counseling services in a number of ways. First, the client is not always voluntary (e.g. probation requirement), and even voluntary clients are cautious about revealing information in counseling that might be used against them in court proceedings. Second, the counseling focuses on issues related to a court action in either criminal, civil or family court. Third, the psychologist usually is asked to provide a summary of the treatment provided in a report, or in court.
  Dr. Franklin has experience: counseling children and adults having difficulty adjusting to divorce; helping parents learn to communicate in the best interests of their children as coparents after divorce; providing parent-child counseling to repair damaged relationships following parental alienation or abuse; and counseling parents individually to assist in reducing anger toward their ex-spouse following divorce.  For civil court, Dr. Franklin has provided counseling for victims of traumatic injury, for victims and perpetrators of harassment and/or discrimination,  and for individuals who cannot control their anger in the workplace. For criminal court, he has provided counseling to individuals on probation or parole for sexual offenses, aggressive or violent behavior (including acts of domestic violence), and for juveniles who display poor social judgment and need to develop social skills.  

Clinical Practice - The psychological treatment services provided by Dr. Franklin can be divided into two areas, psychotherapy and counseling services provided to individual clients, and family counseling services provided to couples (Marriage Counseling) and families, including individual counseling provided to children and adolescents.

Psychotherapy Services - Dr. Franklin has considerable experience treating depression, including clients with mild situational problems to those with chronic, recurrent depression and bipolar depression. He also has extensive experience treating anxiety disorders, using both cognitive and behavioral therapy techniques. He has seen clients with a variety of panic and anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety, panic disorder with and without agoraphobia, simple phobias, social anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. He has also worked with clients with obsessive compulsive disorder. This includes experience working with clients with driving anxiety following a traumatic accident, and providing desensitization treatment and relaxation training for a variety of phobic responses. Dr. Franklin also has experience treating personality disorders, impulse control problems, sexual disorders and adjustment disorders, including the emotional symptoms associated with chronic illness and disability, and stress disorders arising from problems in the workplace.

Marriage and Family Counseling Services - Dr. Franklin has extensive experience working with couples regarding marriage problems. He provides marriage/couple counseling using a problem solving approach, incorporating both cognitive and behavioral interventions. Common problems include couple communication issues, chronic arguments, child rearing conflicts, step parenting issues, conflicts with extended family, sexual issues, alcohol issues, financial issues, and anger management. Dr. Franklin uses a combination of individual, parent and family counseling interventions with children and adolescents, depending on the age of the children and the type of problem. Typical problems include child and adolescent behavior problems, adolescent life-stage adjustment issues, parent-child conflicts, acting out by ADHD children, parental conflict about discipline, conflict in step families, post-divorce parental conflict, and divorce adjustment issues in children and teens. Dr. Franklin has also provided parenting skills training and parent coaching, assisted in the development of behavioral management plans, provided conflict resolution counseling for parent-child and parent-parent conflicts, and provided therapeutic visitation with non-custodial parents and their children to repair damaged parent-child relationships.

Community Mental Health Experience - Dr. Franklin began working in community mental health as a paraprofessional counselor in 1974, while completing his Master's degree. He continued to work in community agencies after completing the Master's degree, and throughout his doctoral training at Fordham University. This clinical experience, under supervision, fulfilled the pre-doctoral and postdoctoral experience requirements for licensing as a psychologist, and provided a broad-based clinical training experience to prepare for private practice. Dr. Franklin provided counseling and psychotherapy in community based treatment programs between 1974 and 1987. This experience includes work in hospital based treatment programs, community mental health centers, and family counseling services. It is best summarized by the different types of responsibilities held: 

Clinical Director - Responsible for all aspects of the clinical mental health services provided in a community mental health clinic, including program development, supervision of senior clinical staff, graduate student supervision, and staff training. Provided diagnostic evaluations, and individual, group and family counseling and psychotherapy services to clients with a variety of psychological problems.

Clinical Supervisor - Provided supervision to mental health professionals, trained graduate students and provided individual, group and family counseling and psychotherapy services to clients. Completed diagnostic evaluations, developed treatment plans as a team leader, and coordinated inter professional liaison with other mental health programs serving similar clients.

Clinician/Counselor - Experience providing individual, group, marital and family counseling services to clients in a variety of clinical and family service settings. Experience treating client problems in the following areas: Depressive Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Substance Abuse, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, MICA (Mentally ill and chemically dependent), Personality Disorders, Adjustment Disorders, Impulse Control Disorders, and Psychotic Disorders.

Teaching and Training Experience

Dr. Franklin has experience teaching Child Psychology to undergraduate students. He has also provided training seminars in the following areas: 

• Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy
• Family Therapy
• Identification and Treatment of Depression
• Treatment of Panic Disorders
• Psychological Child Custody Evaluations
• Stress Management
• Smoking Cessation         

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Donald J. Franklin, Ph.D. is a NJ licensed psychologist (#2244)
providing Forensic Psychology services for Family, Civil and Criminal court cases.
My offices are located in Bridgewater, NJ and Flemington, NJ.
Please call about psychological evaluations and testing, consultations and court testimony:
Bridgewater - (908) 526-8111   ***   Flemington - (908) 806-7344
Please Note: I do not provide online counseling or consultations
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