Services Are Available for Parents in Any Location!

Hi, my name is Susan Duke and I have been a family law attorney for over 25 years. During those years, I have counseled parents through hotly contested custody and divorce cases. Most of the cases involved one or both parents communicating poorly, negatively, or aggressively. As an attorney, I can only advocate for and counsel my own client. With a highly receptive, willing client, I have been able to reduce tension and poor communication by counseling my client to improve and change their part in parental interactions and by coaching my client in how to communicate with a difficult personality type.

However, my role as an attorney is to advocate my client’s position which can often be contrary to improving parental communication. Also, I cannot counsel the opposing parent regarding their communication style and often their attorney is not providing that advice to them. Without anyone providing the same message to both parents, it makes it difficult for a parent to continue doing the “right thing” without felling runover by the other parent. Also, in litigation, the attorneys do not act as neutral parties through which the parents can communicate their concerns; concerns expressed to attorneys usually lead to filings in the court.

My passion has always been helping families and children, and since often being a family law attorney is contrary to this passion, I decided to start offering this service. I have not found a similar service available, where parents have someone to communicate through when they cannot communicate safely or effectively with each other, where they will be coached to improve communication, and where they will be counseled to reduce litigation costs and time.

Courts will often refer parents to co-parenting counseling, mediation, or parenting education courses. These services work wonderfully for parents who are not antagonistic, narcissistic, verbally abusive, or totally non-communicative. These services tend to provide little if any improvements if one or both parents are unreceptive to change. Where there is no trust, co-parenting is difficult if not impossible. Parents in conflict do not want to participate in counseling with a stated objective of making them work together when the parents have no trust or confidence in the other.

Conflict Parenting Coaching attacks one of the biggest problems between parents, the ability to communicate civilly and effectively. I will not only coach both parents to improve their parenting communication skills, I will also discuss each parent’s concerns and discuss how to resolve the concerns with both parents, coming from a neutral position where no one is attacked, accused, or verbally abused when the concern is communicated. Even if we cannot get to a point where both parents are willing to be civil with each other (although that certainly is the objective!), I can help resolve problems without the expense of involving your attorney. Although this coaching service is most often used by parents in litigation, it is also very useful to have me act as an ongoing mediary to relay communications effectively between parents and provide ongoing coaching to avoid future litigation.

If you have any questions about this service and whether it may be for you, please schedule your consultation here or contact me now. You need not live in my area; these services are available virtually to everyone!