Catherine Reid, RSW

I have been a Social Worker for over 29 years with a wealth of experience with children and families.  My particular focus is conducting court ordered, section 30, Private Parenting Plan Assessments (formerly known as custody and access assessments).  I am devoted to conducting thorough, balanced, and unbiased assessments to assist you in achieving a dignified resolution, in a healthy and focused state, and to consider your children's needs first and foremost.  I promise to be there for you through your journey in negotiating Decision-Making responsibilities and Parenting Time with your ex-spouse.  I acknowledge that the journey can be difficult, that you are likely in a high conflict situation and reassure you that the outcome will provide you guidance in how best to achieve your dignified resolution.  Complementing my skills as a parenting plan evaluator and thoroughly understanding the dymanics and complexities of parenting plans, I also provide family therapy to children and parents where resist-refusal behaviours are present when parenting plans do not go as 'planned'.  

In addition to my private practice, I am also a Clinical Investigator on the Clinical Panel for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer (OCL), Ministry of the Attorney General. I conduct assessments under Section 112 of the Courts of Justice Act. I provide decision-making and parenting plan (formerly known as custody and access) reports to the courts and clinical assistance to lawyers representing children in custody/access disputes.  You may not have been accepted by the OCL for a Sec. 112 assessment.  In the alternative, it is these times that parents turn to a private Sec. 30 assessment under the Children’s Law Reform Act at their cost.  They are similar assessments, however, ordered under different Acts.  They both focus on, and provide recommendations for, the best interests of the child.

When families separate, parents are rightfully concerned about the welfare of their children and the continuity of the parent-child relationships.  When an agreement cannot be reached and/or there is high conflict, an understanding on Decision-Making (custody) and Parenting Time (access) can be difficult.  This is when a Parenting Plan Assessment can be very helpful when so much is at stake.  With a Parenting Plan Assessment, recommendations can be made to help you overcome your differences and consider your children's best interests, first and foremost.  A sec. 30 order pursuant to the CLRA is preferable.

A Voice of the Child Report is a short report based on the Views and Preferences of the child(ren) with respect to their unique experience post-separation.  There are no recommendations made and it is not a full assessment.  The report is based on two to three in-person interviews with your child(ren).  This is helpful when issues between yourself and ex-spouse are relatively focused, the child(ren) is pre-teen/teen and/or there are no complex clinical issues.  A court order is preferable for this report.

To understand and serve the child and their needs, including and especially the quality of their relationship with each parent.  In a safe and therapeutic setting, providing services to family members involved in decision-making and parenting time litigation or where both parents consent to the need for reunification counselling and to fully participate in the process.  Parents must agree the objective of family therapy intervention is not to determine IF it is in the child's best interest to have contact with one of the parents.  Rather, the parents agree that it IS in the child's best interest to have healthy relationships with both parents.  The family therapy intervention is intended, in part, to help the child to have a healthy relationship with both parents and to assist in the related areas of family functioning including the child's overall adjustment, each parent's parenting and co-parenting efficacy.  

Multi-faceted family therapy (MFFT) for parent-child contact problems requires a therapist who has specialized training and considerable experience working with separation/divorce and court involved families. The therapy utilizes interventions consistent with cognitive behavioural and solution-focused therapies. Parent education is a large component of the work. The reciprocal relationship between feelings, thinking and behaviour are fundamental; changing one often changes the other. The therapy can be conducted in the office and in the community.

Parent-child contact problems, like other relationship problems, are systemic in nature. Consequently, it is not sufficient to limit intervention to only one part of the system, such as individually with either the rejected parent or child, or even with the child and rejected parent in joint sessions. The preferred parent’s participation and coparenting work is essential to the success of the therapy. Siblings may be contributing to the parent-child relationship problem, especially when they are also resisting contact. Therefore, optimally, the family therapy is multi-faceted in that it requires the participation of all family members in various combinations (e.g., individual sessions with the child and each parent, parent-child sessions, coparenting sessions, and whole family sessions).  After a preliminary screening call with the lawyers and completion of a brief Parent Referral Form by both parents, a more thorough Clinical Intake Consultation (CIC) is conducted with the parents to establish the treatment plan. 

While parents may have different views about the causes or reasons for their child’s reluctance or refusal to have contact with a parent, both parents must be committed to being part of the solution. The family therapy requires not only a commitment of effort, but also of time expended both in the weekly sessions and in between sessions reviewing educational material and completing homework. Often, more than one session per week of the various family members will be necessary, particularly in the first 6 to 12 weeks.