"" T]he best and most useful social science text I have read in a decade .It is comprehensive in its research and scope, clearly written and uses excellent case studies and examples to illustrate in simple terms what might otherwise be complex phenomena.""

--Dr. Tom Altobelli
Federal Magistrate, Family Law Courts
Sydney, Australia

The goal of every family law professional and mental health practitioner is to improve family court outcomes in the best interests of the child. This book will assist readers in meeting this critical goal. "Developmental Psychology for Family Law Professionals "serves as a practical application of developmental theory to the practice of family law.

This book helps family law and mental health professionals gain a broader understanding of each child's unique needs when in the midst of family crisis. It presents developmental theories with which professionals might better assess the developmental needs, synchronies, and trajectories of a given child. Ultimately, this book presents guidelines for making appropriate legal decisions and recommendations for children who have experienced crises such as abuse, neglect, relocation, divorce, and much more.

Key topics include: Custodial schedules Foster and adoptive care Post-divorce disputes Termination of parental rights Psychological assessment and diagnosis Incarcerated parents and visitation rights Relocation and "distance parenting" Visitation resistance and refusal/reunification Parental Alienation/alignment and estrangement Theories of cognitive, language, and social development

When to hold on; when to let go--a constant dilemma of parenthood. This timely book examines the balance between these powerful dynamics. How parents can instill confidence and security in children and how professionals can recognize and respond when this process goes awry. Holding too long and too tight? Letting go too soon and too easily? Includes down-to-earth descriptions of family systems and identity development and guidance on remaining an emotional anchor in children's lives as they launch toward independence. Psychologist Benjamin Garber is author of Keeping Kids Out of the Middle and Developmental Psychology for Family Law Professionals.

We all get angry sometimes, but out-of-control anger can make life miserable for everyone in the family, especially during a divorce, parental separation, or throughout the years of co-parenting, In Taming the Beast, Dr. Benjamin Garber shows you how to understand anger in all its forms, from irritation to frustration to rage, and express it constructively. You will learn practical strategies for modeling good anger management for your children, identifying and measuring emotions with the MadMeter(TM), planning ahead for what to do when anger erupts, and debriefing outbursts so you can do better next time. With practice, you and your kids will discover healthy ways to experience your own emotions--and accept each other's. Taming the Beast is Book 2 in the Healthy Parenting series. Book 1 in the series is The Healthy Parent's ABCs: Healthy Parenting Made Clear and Easy-to-Readand Book 2 is i>Caught in the Middle: A Letter to My Divorced Parents

This unique volume and the accompanying forms provide you with ten forensic family evaluation tools ready for immediate use. These tools have been developed by Dr. Benjamin D. Garber over the course of more than twenty years and tempered through the process of treating and evaluating hundreds of high conflict families. Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools provides the family law professional with critical means of navigating through the complex and contradictory history and reports that commonly arise in the context of custody-related litigation. These are the tools that have been missing to date, necessary if one hopes to map out the conflicted family's strengths and weaknesses, needs and wishes in an organized, systematic and reliable manner. More than just data collection, Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools anchors parent, child and third-party report in the hard data underlying psychology and family law. This volume not only makes Dr. Garber's tools available for immediate use, it provides the reader with up-to-date references to critical areas of inquiry. Responses can thus be interpreted not only by comparison among co-parents, but also by comparison between respondents and the extant literature. Use of these Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools secures evaluations in science, buttresses interpretations in empirical data, and anchors the evaluator's testimony in the contemporary literature all to the benefit of none so much as the child. Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools is structured into six broad categories. Each begins with an introduction to the general topic, includes an annotated discussion of the instrument(s) being introduced and a select list of references. The tools themselves are laid out page-by-page with critical items highlight and cross-referenced. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all ten tools ready to print and to become the foundation of the professionals' next forensic family evaluation.

Laid out in twenty-six sections corresponding to the letters of the English alphabet, couples, groups or classes can move through this fun "how to" guide from one lesson to the next, one letter at a time. Caregiving environments, schools and child-centered organizations assign one letter per week to complete the alphabet in full twice each year!