Approved by KCCL Board: 2/12/10
KING COUNTY COLLABORATIVE LAW
PROTOCOLS FOR
DIVORCE COACHES
These protocols are intended to set forth general best practices for coach members of King County Collaborative Law, not adapted to particular cases. They are not intended to act as a promise of specific conduct with regard to any client or case. These protocols do not preempt any ethical or legal requirements for any profession.
All KCCL members should abide by the Ethical Standards for Collaborative Practitioners adopted by the IACP.
I. Qualifications of a Coach
a. Coaches must be in good standing with the Department of Health and have at least one of the following credentials:
1. Licensed Clinical Social Workers, LICSW;
2. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, LMFT;
3. Until July 1, 2010, to the extent allowed by Washington law for therapists, Registered Counselors who have at least a master’s degree in mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy or a similar course of study;
4. Licensed Psychologists, PhD;
5. Licensed Psychologists, Psy. D;
6. Licensed Mental Health Counselors; or
7. Board Certified Psychiatric MH Nurse Practitioners (ARNP).
b. Coaches shall have the following basic academic preparation and ongoing professional practice in psychological matters pertaining to families, separation and divorce, and domestic violence screening, including:
1. Family systems theory;
2. Individual and family life cycle development;
3. Assessment of individual and family strengths;
4. Assessment of and intervention in family dynamics regarding separation and divorce;
5. Restructuring families after separation including:
Affect management;
Resiliency;
Stress management
Grief and loss
Team and group dynamics
Crisis management
Child development
c. Coaches shall have the following additional training related to Collaborative Practice:
1. Facilitative mediation training, interest-based negotiations or comparable training required for KCCL membership.
2. Collaborative Practice training required for KCCL membership.
3. Coaches shall have an understanding of the roles of attorney, financial specialist, and child specialist in this legal process, and shall remain respectful of the boundaries and limits of each role.
4. Each coach shall strive to master interest-based dispute resolution skills and collaborative law practice.
d. Coaches shall have a basic competency in the following areas. Coaches shall work within the limits of their expertise and practical knowledge, and have the ability to refer out after team consultation:
1. Process and substance addictions;
2. Relationship, sexual, and child abuse;
3. Domestic violence;
4. Psychopathology;
5. Trauma;
II. Coaching
a. Coaches are team members who function within the professional scope of practice, utilizing mental health skills in a legal context. The Role of a Coach is to assist parties with maximizing their functioning within the collaborative process by:
1. Supporting principles of the collaborative process.
2. Assisting parties and team members with understanding and functioning in the family system by:
i. Assisting parties to articulate their perspective;
ii. Helping parties understand the impact of their behavior
iii. Normalizing the emotions of parties
iv. Helping parties manage anxiety
v. Helping parties hear and understand each other and team members.
3. Educating the parties on communication by modeling, teaching and encouraging parties to:
i. Listen actively
ii. Be respectful
iii. Identify and communicate interests
iv. Understand and respect interests of each other
v. Maintain two-way communication
vi. Explore future outcomes that may impact current decisions
4. Assessing and identifying:
i. Emotional readiness for divorce
ii. Readiness for vocational transitions
iii. Psychological issues, processing disorders, and addictive behaviors
iv. Power imbalances and domestic violence
v. Effective communication styles for parties
vi. When appropriate, this assessment should include recommendations to the professional team to make referrals to treatment providers and/or evaluators.
5. Coaches should not meet with minor children without advance agreement of the full interdisciplinary professional team.
6. The coach should not provide legal or financial advice or information. However, coaches may support other team members who provide legal and financial advice. This may include working with the parties to support their emotional needs as they relate to legal and financial matters.
7. Absent a legally-required need for an immediate intervention, the coach should not make referrals without first discussing the matter with the professional team.
8. A coach should at all times be sensitive to maintaining balance between the parties in services and approach, and the potential impact on the process.
b. Coaches should engage in a brief, goal-oriented, systemic process that is:
1. Legal-case focused;
2. Focused on problems related to separation and divorce or other family issue (not an open ended exploration of any topics parties may want to explore);
3. Distinguished from therapy:
i. Not a process of diagnosing or treating disorders;
ii. Touches on the past only to the limited extent it clearly informs the present and future legal case;
iii. Inclusive of the professional team, and is therefore not confidential in regards to providing information and intervention strategies to the professional team.
c. Communications
1. The collaborative process requires tight coordination between professional team members. Therefore, coaches should promptly communicate all information that may impact the process to other professional team members. Communications may include professional team meetings, telephone conferences, and emails.
2. Each coach shall promptly respond to emails and telephone calls of participants, and shall make efforts to timely schedule meetings and conferences, and make allowance for emergency meetings when reasonably necessary to be responsive to party needs.
3. Coaches should promptly review progress notes from joint sessions circulated by the attorneys. Coaches should promptly provide progress notes and/or oral communications summarizing each meeting with the parties to the other team members, and notify the other team members in advance of scheduled meetings.
4. To ensure coordination and consistency, prior to meeting with the clients for the first time and as needed thereafter, coaches should coordinate with the rest of the team members as to the expected scope of services and the frequency of coach meetings. Coaches should strive to stay within the agreed scope and frequency, and should promptly inform the rest of the team if the situation warrants change.
5. Coaches may temporarily withhold certain information given to them by a party from the other party if such disclosure would significantly compromise the emotional well being of one of the parties, so long as this withholding does not affect the integrity of the Collaborative process and the information (including the coach’s recommendation) is immediately disclosed to all other professional team members for a team determination.
6. Coaches should promptly upon engagement read and sign the participation agreement for each case, and provide copies to the attorneys.
7. Coaches should be familiar with the protocols for other professions in the Collaborative Law process.
III. Engagement of a Coach
a. Coaches should have their own agreement with the party or parties that describes the nature of their engagement with the party(ies) that is consistent with the participation agreement and the work of the coach.
b. Each coach should promptly communicate his or her rate and fee structure to the core professional team members.
c. Coaches shall sign the participation agreement.
d. A therapist for a client shall not serve in the role of coach or child specialist on a Collaborative case involving a client with whom the therapist has acted in a therapeutic role. A Collaborative practitioner who serves in the role of coach on a Collaborative case shall not function as a therapist to the Collaborative practitioner’s client after the case has ended.
e. At the commencement of their own work with the parties, a coach should inform the parties that information given may be made available to all participants in the Collaborative case and shall be shared with the attorneys.
IV. Withdrawal/Termination
a. The Coach should inform the parties that the parties may terminate the Coach’s engagement at any time and for any reason.
b. After consultation with other team members, a Coach will terminate his/her professional relationship with parties when it becomes reasonably apparent that the parties are no longer in need of coaching services, or not significantly benefiting from the services.
c. When a Coach withdraws from a case, the Coach shall do so by notifying all professional team members and the clients.
d. A coach must consult with the professional team if the coach believes either or both parties are not acting in good faith.
V. Services Outside the Collaborative Engagement
a. Generally, the role of Coach ends when the Collaborative process is successfully completed or terminates.
b. If either or both parties wish to engage the Collaborative Law process to assist with post-case developments, then the coach shall contact the professional team, or former professional team, for guidance before committing or commencing services.
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