Mediation
For divorcing couples with children, navigating divorce and understanding that it is often an adversarial process can be both frustrating and costly.  Mediation provides a collaborative and much less costly approach to reaching co-parenting agreements.  One of the primary goals of mediation is to help parents develop a parenting plan and resolve issues of physical custody, as well as agree as to how children’s medical and educational issues will be handled.  While designed to assist parents in reaching their divorce agreement, many parents continue with Joel and use mediation as a tool to resolve disputes well after divorce as new questions arise as to how to parent.  Joel’s experience working with children and families, teaching child and adolescent development, and navigating the family court system helps him assist parents in reaching more effective agreements while taking into account the best interests of the child.

Parenting and Co-Parenting
Whether parenting in an intact family, in the midst of divorce, or after divorce, raising children has never been more difficult.  Whereas in past generations extended family and close neighbors and friends were often available to support the parenting process, todays parents live in a world that can feel isolating, where extended family is not near, where the feeling of community is not apparent, and where children are enrolled in multiple schools and multiple after-school activities and/or have become engrossed in screens and social media.  Through his work in the family courts, his experience working with children in dependency court and teaching child advocacy, and his experience working with children and families, Joel has developed unique research-based approaches to parenting and co-parenting.

Parent Coaching
Often in divorce, especially in high-conflict divorce, a parent who has not been the primary caretaker now needs to step up to the plate as an equal in parenting, but does not have the experience or the collaboration necessary to assist in parenting so as to ensure that children thrive.  As with parenting, Joel offers parent coaching, which is designed to assist the parent who is working with a mediator or therapist, but needs more individual instruction regarding the parenting process.

Reunification Therapy
Reunification therapy is similar to family therapy in that it examines family functioning and seeks to strengthen family relationships. It is usually ordered by the court or recommended by the parties’ attorneys in complex or high-conflict cases where parent-child or sibling relationships have been fractured. It requires not only a firm understanding of the underlying issues giving rise to it, but the legal proceedings surrounding it. The reunification therapist collaborates with the individual therapists involved and sometimes collaborates with the parties' attorneys, and even with the court. The therapist’s role must be clearly defined and strict boundaries must be established. Joel’s approach is unique in that he creates strict protocols, often a tiered process and often in writing, to which all parties must agree. This makes clear the intentions of the parties from the outset and keeps therapy on track, ensuring a greater likelihood that therapy will be successful.

Life Coaching
Whereas therapy is an explorative process used to help clients primarily with interpersonal issues and is largely explorative in that the therapist is not there to direct the client, but to facilitate change and help the client to arrive at conclusions, strategies and new ways of being, coaching is focused on the present and is directive and instructive in helping the client to achieve very specific goals.  Joel’s experience as a therapist and the analytical skills he developed as a lawyer allow him to hone in on obstacles that prevent clients from reaching their goals, come up with strategies to assist clients in reaching their goals, and hold clients accountable for their actions or inactions, all in a structured and supportive manner to help clients realize their goals.  

Consultation
Because of his law background and his expertise in child and family therapy and trauma therapy, Joel is often asked by psychotherapists, mediators and attorneys to consult on complex cases. Consultation is offered on an as-needed basis, but can also be made available on a more regular basis depending on the needs of the professional and the complexity of the case.

Lectures and Presentations
Joel is often asked by schools, agencies and professional organizations to lecture on issues ranging from parenting and child development to the neurobiology of trauma.  If you have an interest in having Joel lecture at your school or agency, please contact him.