Parenting coordination and parent facilitation are specialized mediation services offered to divorced, and divorcing, parents who need assistance in child-centered dispute resolution and custody issues, while developing and implem
enting workable parenting plans when parents are distracted by their high conflict relationship.
Parent Coordination is a child-focused, dispute resolution process, in which a qualified neutral assists the parents in successfully developing or implementing a parenting plan.
The Parent Coordinator has four major functions: education, parenting support, monitoring, and mediation. The Parent Coordinator (PC) uses these four aspects to work with families and to help parents develop cooperative and collaborative methods for addressing and resolving conflict. The PC assists parents in understanding their roles as co-parents and in adjusting to their new roles as co-parents. The PC has responsibilities for monitoring the emotional climate of the family relationship. PCs advocate and safeguard the emotional and physical needs of the child by working in the best interest of the child, as well as receiving feedback from schools, therapists, or other professionals involved in the child(ren)’s lives. They observe changes in the family structure and relationship between the parents and the parent-child relationship.
The Parent Coordinator may use mediation techniques in assisting parents to resolve conflict. It is important to note that the PC is not acting as a mediator, attorney or therapist in the responsibilities of a PC.