Protect Your Play Therapy Practice: 4 WAYS to Avoid Legal Issues in Divorce & Custody Cases

As a therapist that works with kids and teens, you will absolutely work with divorce. 

Whether a family comes into the playroom and the divorce seems like ancient history, they are presenting because of the divorce, or a divorce is on the horizon, divorce in the playroom is common.
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There are also more risks in working with divorcing or separating family systems including parents, lawyers or judges asking you to practice outside of your scope of practice and ethical and legal dilemmas that can present. 

Beyond that, some of the most common malpractice lawsuits and board reports happen within the context of divorce and therapy. This is because there is potential for one parent feels like the therapist is on the other parent’s “side” or has negatively influenced matters of custody, child support, or parenting time.

I wanted to give you four of my  best tips to avoid conflict and malpractice lawsuits as a play therapist. 

First, have a clear understanding of your role and the role of therapy.  What is within your scope of practice - and what isn’t.  Grab my free guide HERE to help you advocate for your role and set appropriate limits and boundaries. 

Next, know your state laws about consent for services.  Specifically who has the right to consent, who has the right to withdraw consent, and legal rights for both parents to participate in therapy.  As much as your office neighbor Brenda is an amazing resource - actually look up the state laws and statutes for yourself or consult your own legal team.  There can be tons of differing opinions or good intentions with changed legislature or rules, that you want to be confident you have the most up to date laws, policies and information. 

It is not uncommon for only one parent to present at an intake appointment and unfortunately parents sometimes aren’t always truthful with who holds custody or can make decisions.  And, even with good intentions, may not understand parents rights to participate in therapy even if they don’t hold legal custody.  When you are crystal clear about these statutes and laws you can have a clear and confident understanding with how to proceed with almost any situation that lands in your playroom! 

Next, it is essential to develop a solid intake process to help get the necessary legal documents on file as well as policies and procedures for how to proceed with engagement with divorced or separated family systems for all of the complex scenarios that present in your office! 

Lastly, have a clear understanding of how do document with neutrality and make sure your documentation is a crystal clear reflection of what actually happened in session.  Check out these resources HERE and HERE for more support around documentation support for custody and co-parenting in play therapy! 

Hopefully these are some things to think about and get clear up to increase your confidence and competence with divorced and separated families who present in play therapy! 

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