Renegotiating Family Relationships Divorce, Child Custody, and Mediation

Long recognized as the authoritative guide for clinicians working with divorcing families, this book presents crucial concepts, strategies, and intervention techniques. Robert E. Emery describes how to help parents navigate the emotional and legal hurdles of this painful family transition while protecting their children's wellbeing. The book is grounded in cutting-edge research on family relationships, parenting, and children's adjustment, including Emery's ground breaking longitudinal study of the impact of divorce mediation versus litigation. It provides a detailed treatment manual for mediating custody and other disputes, developing collaborative parenting plans, and fostering positive postdivorce family relationships. New to this edition: reflects the latest psychological research and divorce and custody law chapters on understanding and addressing divorcing partners' anger and grief treatment manual chapters have been extensively revised incorporates the author's 12-year follow-up study.

Robert E. Emery, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Children, Families, and the Law at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on family relationships and children\u2019s mental health, with interests including parental conflict, divorce, mediation, child custody, family violence, genetically informed studies of family life, and associated legal and policy issues. He has authored over 150 scientific publications. His other books on divorce include Marriage, Divorce, and Children\u2019s Adjustment, Second Edition, and The Truth about Children and Divorce: Dealing with the Emotions So You and Your Children Can Thrive. He also is coauthor, with Thomas F. Oltmanns, of Abnormal Psychology, Seventh Edition. Dr. Emery maintains a private practice as a clinical psychologist and mediator and is the father of five children.

1. Conflicting Perspectives: His and Her Divorce 2. Beyond Anger: Pain, Longing, Fear, Guilt, and Grief 3. Grieving Divorce: The Leaver and the Left 4. Renegotiating Relationships I: Separating Marital and Parental Roles 5. Renegotiating Relationships II: Two-Parent Divorced Families 6. Divorce and Custody Law: Perfect Problems, Imperfect Solutions 7. Negotiating Agreements I: Setting the Stage and the First Mediation Session 8. Negotiating Agreements II: Identifying Issues, Brainstorming Options, and Drafting Parenting Plans 9. Mediation Research: A 12-Year Randomized Study