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1. State that the parents shall cooperate with the therapist.

2.Identify the specific type of therapy (i.e., family reunification/reintegration therapy) and indicate it may include parent coaching/counselling, parent and co-parent education, and any other therapeutic interventions to assist the family to remedy their current difficulties, address parenting and coparenting, improve the strained parent-child relationship(s), and assist to implement the court ordered parent-child contact.

3. Identify Renew Supervision Services as the agency providing service and assigning the therapist(s); failing that, a process for selecting professionals if the parents cannot agree.

4. Specify the dates by which the parents are to have returned their intake questionnaires and retainer to Renew. State that a status report will be provided by Renew to the court if these stated time requirements are not met.

5. State that if after the initial Clinical Intake Consultation (CIC), the family therapy is recommended, the family reunification (reintegration) therapy shall proceed as recommended by the therapist.

6. Specify the names of all family members who are to participate in the therapy.

7. Identify the goals of the family therapy, including but not limited to:

     a) restoring or facilitating contact between the child and the resisted/rejected parent;

     b) assisting parents to resolve relevant parent-child conflicts;

     c) fostering overall healthy child adjustment;

     d) restoring, developing or facilitating adequate parenting and co-parenting functioning and skills;

     e) developing family communication skills and effective approaches to problem solving; assisting parents to fully understand their child(ren)’s needs for healthy relationships with both parents and the negative repercussions for the child(ren) of a severed or compromised relationship with a parent in their young lives and as adults;

     f) assisting the parents and child(ren) to identify and separate each child’s needs and views from each parent’s needs and views;

     g) working with each family member to establish more appropriate parent-parent and parent-child roles and boundaries;

     h) correcting child(ren)’s distortions and providing more realistic perceptions reflecting the child’s actual experience with both parents;

     i) assisting the child(ren) to differentiate self from others, and to be able to exercise age-appropriate autonomy; and,

     j) assisting parents to distinguish valid concerns from overly negative, critical, and generalized views relating to the other parent.

8. Name any specific seminars or educational programs one or both parents are to attend in combination with the family therapy, or that they are to comply as per the direction of the therapist.

9. Clarify parameters for the parents’ withdrawal from services (e.g., by both parents only, by Court Order). Clarify procedure for selecting new therapist.

10. State the family therapist may make recommendations to the parents, counsel and the Court (e.g., about transitions/transfers protocols, locations, behaviours, pacing of parent-child contact within the determined parenting time schedule, parent communication and child-related information sharing protocols, etc.).

11. State the family therapist may make recommendations for additional therapists, the removal of a current therapist, or the cessation of a child’s individual therapy if these are deemed to be unhelpful to the family therapy. State that no new mental health professionals are permitted to become involved with any member of the family during the duration of the family therapy unless the family therapist consents to this involvement.

12. State the need for coordinated services when there are multiple professionals involved (e.g., CAS, parent or child individual therapists, other previous or current therapists, educational or medical professionals, Parenting Coordinator or Mediator/Arbitrator, OCL, etc.). Accordingly, state the family therapist may communicate, ex parte, with any other professionals he/she deems necessary to implement the goals of the family therapy. State the parents will execute any necessary authorizations to allow for this exchange of information between relevant professionals.

13. Clarify the limits of confidentiality, including that the therapist may: i) at his/her discretion share information with other family members participating in the family therapy; and ii) provide status or summary process reports or recommendations to the Court and other relevant professionals, the frequency and timing of such reports determined by the therapist or the Court.

14. Identify enforcement clauses if the specified parenting time does not occur (e.g., sanctions, consequences for non-compliance, etc.) and the immediate return to court.

15. Specify any grievance procedures.

16. Clarify details of payment for services (e.g., percentage of fees split between parents with both parents responsible for a portion of the service fees. Retainer is required before commencing service)

17. State there will be no recording of the family therapy unless agreed to by the therapist and all parties.