Navigating Divorce with Parents of Children with Disabilities: A Training for Mediators, Collaborative Professionals, Coaches and Other Divorce Professionals

NEW!

An Innovative New Training from Mosten Guthrie in Partnership with Josh Kershenbaum

February 9-10, 2023 (two days of training)

Schedule:  
9:30am – 2:00pm PT (with 1/2 hour break)
12:30pm – 5:00pm ET (with 1/2 hour break)

Early Bird Pricing

$595.00 (until 1.31.2023)

Full Price: $695.00 (after 1.31.2023)

We are thrilled to announce the launch of an important new and innovative training focused on helping to support parents of children with disabilities in divorce and separation matters.

Navigating divorce is difficult for any family, but for parents of children with disabilities it presents many additional challenges, obstacles, and questions. Skilled divorce professionals are critical to ensuring that families are supported in achieving the best possible outcomes, both for the parents and their children. Yet many divorce practitioners shy away from providing services to families in such complex conflicts, creating a need and opportunity for professionals who can become better educated and prepared to assist. This training will prepare divorce professionals to “run toward” these families, not away from them. We will help you answer the most essential questions: Can I do this work, and in what capacity? What language should I use? What specialized issues might arise? Who can I turn to for help in areas outside my expertise? How will I know that I am not leaving this family worse off than when we started?

Whether you are a mediator, Collaborative professional, divorce or co-parenting coach, court-affiliated mediator, parenting coordinator or other divorce professional, this training will increase your knowledge and comfort in working with divorcing and separating parents of children and adults with disabilities. Experienced practitioners will expand their professional network and gain fresh new perspectives on best practices for both neutral and aligned roles. Early-career professionals will be introduced to an interdisciplinary framework for assisting families and gain a roadmap for continuing education and building a practice focused on providing competent and supportive services.

Topics will include:

• Creating inclusive and accessible intake processes and forms;
• Using person-centric language, asking the right questions, and learning about the experiences of people with disabilities;
• Discussing the potential benefits of mediation, Collaborative, and cooperative processes for families of children with disabilities;
• Specific processes for collaborating with experts and other professionals, including how to get buy-in from clients, how to support the selection process, agreements to have in place, and how to conduct an informal meet-and-greet with clients and collaborating professionals;
• Crafting co-parenting agreements that address common challenges for parents of children with disabilities;
• Strategies for facilitating interest-based conversations when parents disagree about the nature or scope of a child’s disability;
• Exploring other sources of support for the child and family, including Medicaid, Social Security, Special Education, Private Insurance, and other public or private sources;
• Understanding the critical importance of preserving access to public benefits and how this may impact support, property division, and estate planning;
• Building a team in mediation, Collaborative, “hybrid,” or other non-adversarial processes to provide necessary expertise and support the well-being of the whole family;
• Centering the needs of children and the parents’ needs as caregivers in discussions of parenting, property division, and support;
• Building your practice through experience and effective networking;
• Expanding your network of resources and referrals including organizations and professionals with expertise in disability benefits, needs assessment, estate planning, and other topics; and
• Working remotely with professionals outside your area, including when to do so, and how to navigate potential ethical and jurisdictional issues.

Mosten Guthrie Academy is approved by the State Bar of California to offer 8 credit hours of MCLE (for attorneys) for this training. Mosten Guthrie Academy is also approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (provider 75785) to sponsor Continuing Education and this training meets the qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Mosten Guthrie Academy maintains responsibility for this course and its content.

This is a live, participatory training delivered in a supportive, dynamic, and interactive online forum. Synchronous attendance and participation is required and recordings are not available for makeup or review; see Mosten Guthrie Academy Cancellation and Attendance Policies (linked) for more information.

Accommodations: To request accommodations for disability, please email: alison@mostenguthrie.com.

Grievances: To obtain the grievance policy or to report a grievance, please email: alison@mostenguthrie.com.

Certificates: Mosten Guthrie Academy Course Completion Certificates will be awarded to those who completed the course and distributed after the last day of training, along with MCLE certificates (for attorneys), and CE certificates of attendance. Please note that mental health professionals are required to complete and return the CAMFT course evaluation form in order to receive the CE certificate of attendance.

More about your lead trainer:

Josh Kershenbaum, Esq., is a dedicated Peacemaker with extensive training and experience in both Mediation and Collaborative Law. He earned certifications in both Negotiation and Mediation at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and completed additional Mediation training through the Good Shepherd Mediation Program. Josh trained in Divorce & Family Mediation at the acclaimed Mosten Guthrie Academy with mediation luminaries Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten and Susan Guthrie. He is a member of the Collaborative Law Professionals of Southeast Pennsylvania, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the National Association of Divorce Professionals, the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators, and is an Approved Vesta Divorce® Professional (BuxMont PA Hub).

Prior to joining the Law Offices of Jennifer J. Riley as Senior ADR Counsel, Josh earned a national reputation as an outspoken leader in the field of special education law. He co-founded Frankel & Kershenbaum, LLC, Pennsylvania’s premier, boutique law firm dedicated to representing children with special needs and their families. He later served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, where he developed and taught a seminar on Special Education Law. 

Josh brings over 20 years of experience and expertise in the areas of education and special education law to his Mediation and Collaborative Divorce practices. He devotes much of his time to helping parents of children and adults with special needs navigate their divorces through Mediation and Collaborative Practice. He also continues to help parents, students, school districts, and higher education institutions resolve special education and other conflicts through Mediation.     

A dynamic and engaging teacher and trainer, Josh has spoken at numerous professional conferences around the country for attorneys, parents, educators, school administrators, teachers, and students on a variety of topics related to special education law, mediation, and conflict resolution. He has been a guest on several programs on National Public Radio, and on the popular podcast, Good Law Bad Law. Most recently, Josh joined the faculty of the Mosten Guthrie Academy as a guest trainer and contributing writer. 

Josh began his legal career as a Litigation Associate at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, LLC in Philadelphia. He earned his law degree, cum laude, from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in the Evening Division while working full-time and raising his son. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College, where he studied psychology and neuroscience as an undergraduate. Before practicing law, Josh was a public elementary school teacher in Newton, Massachusetts, where he also served as a Board member for Greater Boston PFLAG. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his teenaged son and two rescue kittens.