Reunification Therapy: A Good Choice for You and Your Children?

After a divorce, your relationship with your children may be strained. These strains are sometimes fed by the parent with residential custody, but can also stem from extended time apart or a shortage of time to visit with your children. In these instances, some parents seek the family court’s assistance in requiring their children to attend counseling with them. Reunification therapy is a form of counseling that has gained a great deal of attention in recent years, while also stirring controversy. Read on to learn more about reunification therapy, and speak to an experienced family attorney if you’re considering seeking this therapy for you and your children.

What is reunification therapy?

While not a technical term, reunification is a form of therapy that targets estranged parents and children. The counseling sessions are often used as a way to reintroduce a parent and child to one another with the help and guidance of an experienced therapist. Since reconnecting a parent and child after a long separation can be traumatic, many experts advocate this approach of using the services of a professional with specialized experience in parental reunification. Many parents who wish to rekindle a relationship with their child but encounter resistance from their co-parent seek the court’s help by requesting an order for reunification therapy. A major goal of reunification therapy is often to remove the child from the middle of disputes between the parents, allowing the child to have a loving relationship with each parent separate from the other parent. Some forms of reunification therapy require intensive weekends in retreat-like settings, while others take the approach of bringing the entire family together for regular counseling sessions. Many experts recommend that both the parent and child participating in reunification therapy participate in individual therapy, as well.

Who can benefit from reunification therapy?

Reunification therapy is often recommended in the event of high-conflict divorce, where one parent is preventing the other from seeing the child. Where a parent has struggled with substance issues but has begun the recovery process, or has been the subject of claims of abuse, reunification therapy can be a useful way to create a safe space for the parent and child to reconnect. If a parent can show that they were the victim of deliberate parental alienation by their ex, courts will often use reunification therapy as a way of disabusing the child of unfair or untrue ideas of what their parent is like.

If you are struggling to rekindle your relationship with your child or wish to increase the amount of visitation time you have, get help from an experienced and compassionate attorney in reuniting with your child by contacting the New Jersey family law attorney John B. D’Alessandro for assistance, in Union at 908-964-0102.