Therapeutic and Supervised Visitation
“Therapeutic visitation” is similar to “supervised visitation.” They are both supervised visits between a non-custodial parent and a child. In supervised visitation the parent is allowed to have contact with his or her child only when there is a supervisor present, usually to ensure safety. Therapeutic visitation is similar in that the supervisor’s most important objective is to keep the child safe. In therapeutic visitation, however, there is also an emphasis on developing parenting skills. The supervisor is a trained mental health professional who intervenes as needed to facilitate appropriate parent-child interactions, redirect conversations, or provide in-vivo parenting education. In my practice, I also debrief with parents after visits to talk about what went well, what to try differently next time, relevant child development issues, and what to expect down the road.
Therapeutic visitation is appropriate for parents with insufficient parenting skills, high-conflict families at risk for domestic violence, parents with previous allegations of sexual abuse, parents with a history of severe parental alienation, or those who have threatened to abscond with the child.
I follow standard guidelines in every therapeutic visitation case to help ensure the safety of all involved. A few examples include no whispering or note passing, no cell phone use, no rough play, no physical discipline, no promises or statements regarding parenting time, no negative conversations or tones of voice regarding the other parent/guardian, and more. In addition to the standard guidelines, there may be case-specific rules or boundaries that need to be implemented. Before therapeutic supervision takes place, I review documentation and meet with the custodial parent/guardian first to gain insight about the case-specific issues. For example, there may be particular conversation topics or behaviors that carry meaning that would not necessarily be obvious without background knowledge. I also meet with the non-custodial parent to complete the family history and make sure he or she clearly understands all expectations.
A visit may be terminated early, or future sessions may be cancelled under certain conditions. For example, if there are threats of violence or other abuse, a safety concern arises that cannot be effectively managed, or if a parent fails to comply with the guidelines and rules.
In order to prevent any sort of confrontation between the parties in front of the child, there is no contact between custodial and non-custodial parents during therapeutic supervision at my practice. I ask the non-custodial parent to arrive 15 minutes early and wait inside the office. When the custodial parent arrives with the child, I meet them in the waiting room and escort the child back to the office while the custodial parent leaves. At the end of the visit, the non-custodial parent waits in the office while I escort the child to the waiting room to meet the custodial parent. They are given time to leave while the non-custodial parent again waits in the office for 15 minutes.
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