Services

FAMILY COURT

**CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATION (CCE)**

For parents with competing ideas about custody, timeshare and service provisions for their child(ren), co-parenting could be difficult and lead to high levels of stress and conflict. A Child Custody Evaluation offers parents and family court judges an objective analysis into family and parent-child dynamics that inhibit and promote childhood development and effective co-parenting. The CCE provides the court with a series of custody, timeshare, and parenting-plan recommendations from these analyses.

**PARENT COACHING (In-Home Available)**

Divorce, separation, and normal childhood development cause natural disruptions in family dynamics and require adjustments on the parts of all family members. These disruptions and changes can threaten the stability, consistency, and predictability of home environments, especially when the co-parenting relationships are strained. Parent Coaching is a skills-building service that assists parents in optimizing their co-parenting through the support of professionals trained in various forms and aspects of family therapy and effective communication. With these enhanced skill sets, parents can provide their children with a home environment that promotes healthy childhood development.

**CO-PARENT COUNSELING**

Sharing custody and timeshare between divorced and/or separated couples can significantly contribute to the lack of cooperation between co-parents, increasing the likelihood of harm to the children. The associated anger, resentment, and hostility undermine the child's emotional, psychological, and social development. Co-Parent Counseling provides parents with the techniques to effectively communicate, negotiate, and plan parenting in a manner that serves both the overall family but with a particular emphasis on the health, safety, and emotional wellbeing of the child[ren].

**PARENTING COORDINATION**

Adjusting to divorce and separation is often difficult for one or both parents. Co-parents in high-conflict co-parenting relationships wherein the level of conflict interferes with their capacity to communicate effectively, negotiate peacefully and support their child[ren] collaboratively. Parenting Coordination provides the entire family assistance by guiding parents in various parenting decisions, negotiations and conflict resolution. Coordination is designed to assist the entire family in adjusting to the divorce, separation and other disruptions to family dynamics.

**FAMILY REUNIFICATION THERAPY**

Family Reunification Therapy explores and examines the individual and collective roles each family member plays, in the distance, within the parent-child relationship and identifies new and creative ways of reconnection. This treatment modality integrates both cognitive-behavioral, trauma-informed, and solution-focused approaches to develop a parenting plan that repairs the disruptions in attachment and reciprocal connectedness within the parent-child relationship.

EDUCATION

**POLITICAL TERROR AND DOMESTIC TRAUMA: AFRICAN AMERICAN MENTAL HEALTH™**

**Course Summary:**
Historically, political narratives have trafficked in ethnic and racial stereotypes and tropes to achieve social and political ends. This workshop reviews, investigates, and analyzes the weaponization of historic racial tensions as well as their effects on minoritized students. In this workshop, students will learn techniques and strategies that promote individual and collective resiliency against the weaponization of racial tensions that impact academic and social functioning.

unconscious 4.jpg — **[UN]CONSCIOUS BIAS AND STEREOTYPE THREAT: PATHWAYS & BEHAVIORS**

**Course Summary:**
Equity research identified [un]conscious bias, stereotyping, and stereotype-risk that unwittingly create barriers within the faculty-student relationship and de-optimize both academic and social performances. This workshop reviews, examines, and analyzes the psychosocial dynamics within the faculty-student relationship that both erode and promote student performance. In this workshop, students will learn evidence-based strategies and techniques that increase the timely completion of core requirements and transfer-rates of minoritized students.

**GENERATIONAL AND COMMUNITY TRAUMA: BUILDING RESILIENCY**

**Course Summary:**
Clinical studies found generational and community traumas interfere with the psychological, emotional, psychological, emotional, and behavioral functioning in academic settings. This workshop reviews, examines, and analyzes the effects of trauma on adjusting to the social, cultural, and academic demands of community college. In this workshop, students will learn emotional regulations techniques that promote both social, cultural, and academic adjustment.

**IMPOSTER SYNDROME: BELONGINGNESS & SOCIAL INTEGRATION**

**Course Summary:**
Equity and Inclusion research found that nontraditional and minoritized students are vulnerable to feelings of self-doubt, negative self-appraisals and a lack of social belongingness known as Imposter Syndrome. This workshop reviews, examines, and analyzes the impact of “being the first” and “self-doubt” that interfere with the help-seeking behaviors of “academic integration” and “help-seeking behaviors” of minoritized students. In this workshop, students will learn evidence-based techniques that promote belongingness and build academic relationships in a manner that promotes access campus resources, and maximize learning opportunities.

**CAMPUS AND CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT: READINESS, MOTIVATION & DRIVE**

**Course Summary:**
Clinical research found decreased campus and classroom engagement levels among nontraditional and minoritized students as compared to their counterparts. This workshop reviews, examines, and analyzes the factors that reduce and promote classroom and campus engagement of minoritized students. In this workshop, students will learn evidence-based socio-emotional regulation techniques for academic readiness, engagement, self-efficacy, and self-actualization.

FORMERLY INCARCERATED STUDENTS

2-DAY WORKSHOP

The Formerly Incarcerated Students 2-Day workshop is an invitation for faculty, staff and administrators to familiarize themselves with the specialized knowledge and skills used by experts to motivate and modify behaviors of individuals within the offender population.

This workshop offers a lifespan approach to understand the psychosocial factors that result in interpersonal difficulties and learning disruptive behaviors that studies have identified to be unique to formerly incarcerated student populations.

The 2-day design of the workshop permits a deeper dive into the socio-emotional and cognitive-behavioral differences between formerly incarcerated students in their middle adulthood stages (Ages 20-45) versus those in their late-middle adulthood stages (Ages 45-64) stages of life. The design promotes the improvement of the faculty-student relationship by permitting attendees to learn, plan, and practice stage-specific classroom strategies used by the experts to support this unique and often unfamiliar student population. For staff and administrators, this workshop can enhance and bolster student support that is responsive to the needs of this population.

PROBATION

**COMMUNITY TRAUMA AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:**
**OVERCOMING RE-ENTRY BARRIERS**

**Course Summary:**
Forensic studies indicate that over 85% of offenders have experienced some form of early childhood trauma from violence in their homes and/or witnessing violence in their neighborhoods. This direct and indirect form of trauma causes clinically significant levels of socio-emotional difficulties that negatively impact social rehabilitation efforts. This workshop traces and sequences direct domestic and neighborhood violence experiences on children, adults, and communities. Additionally, attendees will learn trauma-informed interventions that increase socio-emotional regulation and behavioral functioning in academic, social and employment spaces.

**SOCIAL REHABILITATION: BARRIERS & FACILITATORS**

**Course Summary:**
Forensic research found that prolonged incarceration is associated with losses in academic, social and occupational functioning. These individual and collective deficits culminate to impact the level of success experienced by previous offenders. This workshop explores and examines the psychosocial factors that impede successful reentry efforts. Attendees will learn practical CBT techniques and social rehabilitative strategies adapted to facilitate formerly incarcerated offenders in their social rehabilitation and entry efforts.

(2) Imposter syndrome.jpg — **ADULT OFFENDERS: MENTAL ILLNESS & DUAL DIAGNOSIS**

**Course Summary:**
Forensic studies indicate that 65% of adult offenders’ overall functioning is impaired by undiagnosed mental illnesses such as Bi-Polar, Depression, Psychotic, and Substance Abuse disorders. This workshop explores and examines the problematic behaviors and disruptions associated with undiagnosed and untreated mental illnesses that disrupt their academic, social, and employment functioning. Additionally, attendees will learn evidence-based techniques to mitigate the associated behavioral disruptions to improve the academic, social and employment functioning of adult offenders with undiagnosed illnesses and enhance the skills of helping professionals.

**YOUNG OFFENDERS: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION**

**Course Summary:**
Forensic studies indicate that 65% of adult offenders’ overall functioning is impaired by undiagnosed mental illnesses such as Bi-Polar, Depression, Psychotic, and Substance Abuse disorders. This workshop explores and examines the problematic behaviors and disruptions associated with undiagnosed and untreated mental illnesses that disrupt their academic, social, and employment functioning. Additionally, attendees will learn evidence-based techniques to mitigate the associated behavioral disruptions to improve the academic, social and employment functioning of adult offenders with undiagnosed illnesses and enhance the skills of helping professionals.

**FAMILY REUNIFICATION:**
**RE-ENTRY SOCIAL REHABILITATION**

**Course Summary:**
The Bureau of Justice (2021) indicated that 49% of offenders are parents, step-parents, or guidance of minor children. Physical separation caused by incarceration or offender behaviors potentiate years of no access or contact with their child creating emotional distance in the parent-child relationship. This workshop is for probation supervisors and staff working with formerly incarcerated offenders with children. The CBT-based curriculum adapts family reunification counseling practices for probation-specific services.