Forensic Assessments & Consultation

I have been conducting forensic assessments for over 19 years for private clients, attorneys, and also as a court appointed expert.

I offer several different types of forensic assessment:

• Attachment Assessment (also available for foster / adoptive / birth parents as informative)

• Parenting Evaluation / Guardian ad Litem services

• Reunification Therapy

• Supervised Visitation

• Trial Consultation / Prep

What is an Attachment Assessment?

An Attachment Assessment is a comprehensive assessment that evaluates the quality of the caregiver-child relationship, the strengths and challenges of the caregiver, and how well the child uses the caregiver as a secure base. (In other words, strength and weaknesses of the child in regard to attaching normally and utilizing all the parent has to offer them) An attachment assessment (bonding and attachment assessment) evaluates the pattern of relatedness between children and their caregivers. It is not a therapeutic intervention, although it may be used as a basis for later therapy. The assessment should result in a description of the particular style of attachment that a child has with a particular caregiver. It should be able to describe what that style will mean in the child’s development. The observational and interview sections of the evaluations provide data to support the evaluators’ conclusions. The evaluation should also describe the way that other developmental information informs the evaluation.

In order to provide an assessment that is valuable to the parents (and/or the Court) the evaluator must utilize an assessment that is objective, has a scoring component, and is comprehensive (includes all elements of the child's and both parents’ functioning).

The evaluator must understand and adhere to the boundaries of being an objective evaluator, addressing / extinguishing their innate biases. It is their responsibility and duty to stay neutral and politely positive. No more, no less. Often evaluators feel the pull to encourage better functioning by offering support or guidance, or helping to regulate dyads when they become dysregulated. This results in an inaccurate assessment. This is often a result of the evaluator not recognizing their own biases or beliefs based on their life experience and values, which are unique and not applicable to the evaluation.

The evaluator

• Must put in the necessary time to complete a comprehensive and fair assessment.

• Must interview parents both together and apart.

• Must give identical word for word instructions to both parents and the child(ren).

• Should interview the child alone more than once, so the child begins to have some rapport and feels comfortable sharing.

• Should observe dyads in a diverse array of activities and situations that provide scientific evidence regarding the attachment.

• Must include developmental, social, emotional and medical history of the child(ren) including conducting a comprehensive history of the relationships of the family.

• Must remain neutral and politely positive. (Evaluators typically feel the pull to encourage better functioning by:
  helping to regulate dyads when they become dysregulated; or instructing parents who are not responding, or increasing the positive emotional climate in the room. The results of the evaluation are skewed when the evaluator “helps” in this manner. Most importantly, must observe the child during the time they are staying with each parent. Assessing dad's relationship with the child during mom's parenting time does not allow the child time to reconnect and settle in, and therefore skews the interactions. (This is a mistake I see made often.)

These evaluations require ample time–typically 10-12 professional hours for the assessment, feedback and written report. If there is an assessment of two families, the evaluation can easily require 18 hours. The assessments are requested during the course of a divorce, an adoption, or when a child is in dependency status with the State and there are placement concerns. The assessment must have observable behavioral indicators to back up the conclusions of the evaluator. Therefore, the observations are critical to the evaluation.

This is not a parenting evaluation. It can, however, be of importance as one component of or to compliment a parenting evaluation.

For more information about my credentials and training, please click HERE to see my CV.

Please note that legal and forensic appointments are not able to be submitted for insurance reimbursement.