Reunification & Reunification Counseling

Reunification counseling is a form of family therapy that is often ordered by a family or dependency court Judge. Reunification therapy is different from traditional family therapy. In traditional family therapy, the participants usually live together, and/or have frequent and ongoing contact. They come together in family therapy to work on an issue or dynamic that is disrupting the family unit in some manner. 

Reunification counseling is different in that the participants, usually a parent and their child/ren who have been ordered to reunification therapy have had a disruption in the frequency of their contact. This disruption may have been intentional or unintentional causing a physical and/or emotional disruption in the parent-child relationship.

This disruption can cause estrangement and sometimes alienation within the parent/child dyad. Regardless of the intent, the disruption is usually significant in that the parent and child do not have frequent and/or ongoing contact. This lack of contact has usually impacted the parent/child bond in a negative direction. 

In the case of divorcing parents there is usually a marked difficulty in the ability of the parents to effectively coparent, sometimes causing a high conflict situation. This causes a significant problem for the child/ren involved as they find themselves having to navigate a very complicated family situation between the two most important people in their lives. 

Dr. Woller and her Associates use a Child Centered - Family Focused – Trauma Informed Treatment Modality with regards to reunification and reunification counseling. This proprietary treatment modality was developed by blending the Family Systems Theory (FST), Trauma Informed Care literature (TIC), Parental Alienation literature (PA) and the latest research in reunification counseling. 

The reunification therapist has a predetermined family problem that is the focus of treatment. Reunification therapy has a fixed therapeutic goal of reunification between the estranged/alienated parent (E/AP) and the child. It is important that you understand the role that your reunification counselor has with regards to your family. 

The reunification counselor works for the E/AP and their child/ren. While the information and input from the custodial parent is very important and always welcome, it is important to understand that the clinical relationship and responsibility that the therapist has is between the E/AP and the children.  

Dr. Woller and her Associates use a dual therapist model when working with families whose children exhibit "resist/refuse" in reunification. That means that unless otherwise indicated, there are two therapists present during all aspects of reunification counseling. 

We do this because of the complex nature of the situation that has arisen between the child and the E/AP. Many children who are in reunification therapy exhibit a behavior called the “resist/refuse” dynamic which means that the child/ ren do not want to participate or are hesitant to participate in reunification counseling. 

This makes the counseling difficult for the children, the custodial parent and the E/AP requiring both therapists to assist the family in the transitioning to a new thought dynamic. 

Children who are in our reunification therapy program are required to attend individual therapy with the dual therapy team or with a therapist who is trained in reunification dynamics.This is to prepare the child for the family counseling session that is coming up. 

All of the therapists that with work within Dr. Woller's practice are trained pediatric trauma clinicians. During the individual counseling sessions the therapist works with the child to identify any trauma that has occurred within the family. The therapist also helps the child/ren identify trauma behaviors and/or triggers that the child has. 

If your therapist finds that there is legitimate trauma present, the therapist will process it with the child individually and prepare the child to speak to the parent about it in family sessions. The reunification therapy team teach the child individually about cognitive distortions, points of contention, confirmation bias, negative narratives developed during divorce, how negative narratives form, the refuse/resist dynamic, safety planning, the role of their team members (the attorneys, judge, counselors) and most importantly emotional development. The reunification therapists are teaching the children how to use "feeling words" instead of "thinking words". 

Children in reunification therapy generally do not want to be there. This initially makes the relationship that they have with the reunification therapy team and the E/AP feel uncomfortable for them. Children in reunification therapy sometimes hyper focus on the more emotionally difficult parts of the session reporting back negative feelings and experiences to the custodial parent. These feelings are a normal part of the reunification process and will get better over time. 

All of the therapists that with work within Dr. Woller's practice are trained pediatric trauma clinicians. During the individual counseling sessions the therapist works with the child to identify any trauma that has occurred within the family. The therapist also helps the child/ren identify trauma behaviors and/or triggers that the child has. 

If your therapist finds that there is legitimate trauma present, the therapist will process it with the child individually and prepare the child to speak to the parent about it in family sessions. 

During reunification child and E/AP individually and together learn about cognitive distortions, points of contention, confirmation bias, negative narratives developed during divorce, how negative narratives form, the refuse/resist dynamic, safety planning, the role of their team members (the attorneys, judge, counselors) and most importantly emotional development. The reunification therapists are teaching the children how to use "feeling words" instead of "thinking words". 

Florida State Statute 491.0147 outlines both confidentiality and privileged communication between a therapist and their patients. In addition the HIPPA further outlines confidentiality when it comes to mental health records. 

This means that the counseling sessions between the E/AP and the children are confidential and privileged. The exception to the confidentiality rule is when there are concerns that someone is hurting a minor child, when someone plans on hurting themselves or when someone plans on hurting someone else. 

Your child/ren’s reunification therapist can not to disclose any information that is being said or discussed during reunification counseling to anyone that is not a clinical participant of the session or who has not been authorized by the E/AP to have that information. 

This can be upsetting to a custodial parent as many times they receive skewed or partial information from the child/ren after the counseling session. It is important to respond to that information in a caring and neutral manner. 

Your reunification therapist will submit Court summaries, assessments and recommendations to your judge as needed. These summaries are provided to the E/AP’s attorney who then is responsible for disseminating and filing them with the Court and the other parties in the case. 

The reunification therapist is also permitted to provide Court summaries to the Guardian Ad Litem, the Social Investigator and the Parent Coordinator with the E/AP’s written authorization or with a Court order. 

The custodial parents attorney may not receive these reports directly from the reunification clinician due confidentiality issues unless the E/AP signs a release of information that will allow the reunification therapist to provide the custodial parents attorney a copy of the report. 

The custodial parents attorney must receive the reports and summaries written by the reunification therapist from the E/AP’s attorney and/or through direct Court filings made by the attorneys involved within the case. Your reunification therapist may be asked to testify in Court about how reunification is going and/or recommendations that they may have. 

Your reunification therapist is considered an expert witness in Court. Your reunification therapist has expert witness fees associated with the time that is spent in Court. The party that has called the therapist to Court is responsible for the expert witness fees. The expert witness fee sheet is attached.