Job Description for a Parenting Facilitator
Parent facilitators help forge agreements between separated parents about how children should be raised. They also help families work through disagreements that may occur over time. Using a parent facilitator to reach consensus is significantly cheaper than taking a co-parent to court.
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Job Description
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A parenting facilitator provides both parents with tips on communicating more effectively so that each can communicate a point without giving up or resorting to tactics such as yelling. A facilitator also will help parents craft and reach consensus on a parenting plan, which ensures that a child is receiving a consistent parenting experience from each parent. Such plans may address the allowable roles of parental partners or extended family, and any specific alienating behaviors that cause problems between the parents. According to the Cooperative Parenting Institute, parenting plans seek to help "parents establish and maintain a healthy co-parenting relationship by reducing parental conflict and the risk factors that influence a child's post-divorce adjustment."
Issues Covered
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Many types of issues can benefit from facilitation, including visitation, vacations, holidays and disciplinary measures. A parenting facilitator will also help separated parents determine how to best divide children's events or to develop ground rules when both parents wish to attend an event. Parenting facilitation can't resolve custody issues---these must be decided by a court of law.
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Necessity of Facilitators
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Our society's high divorce rate, combined with the expense of court proceedings and the often ugly nature of divorce, makes parenting facilitation an appealing and cost-effective option for many couples. Some issues, such as custody, must still be decided by a court of law. However, most other issues can be discussed by the parents until, with the aid of a skilled facilitator, they reach consensus. The number of issues that need resolution in court is much reduced, as are the billable hours for each individual's attorney. Also, while parenting facilitation is not confidential and courts may request reports on decisions, it can provide much greater privacy than court proceedings.
Education and Skills
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Education requirements differ from state to state. However, a parenting facilitator must have experience dealing with high-conflict situations, as well as training in family therapy, adult psychotherapy and developmental psychology. An effective facilitator will understand the coping behaviors of children, how adults recover from divorce, legal terms and mediation strategies. Generally speaking, a master's degree is required for those interested in this field: This degree may be in social work, psychology or another mental health field. It's not uncommon for states to also require official training in mediation. Many professionals perform parenting facilitation as part of their job, and do individual and group therapy or specialized tasks the rest of the time.
Job Outlook
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Courts are increasingly turning to facilitation as a way to minimize case load and the costs to the system. Thus, the job outlook for parenting facilitators---and, indeed, for all forms of mediation---is positive. Salary will vary significantly based on whether the practitioner has a master's degree or doctorate, the level of experience of the facilitator, the location within the country and the type of agency for which a facilitator works.
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References
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