Narcissistic Abuse: Must-Know Insights to Support Clients in High-Conflict Legal Cases & Custody Battles

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Faculty

Sandra L. Brown, MA Related seminars and products

---

Sandra L. Brown, MA, has worked with narcissistic abuse survivors for over 30 years and is often referred to as the pioneer in the field of pathological love relationships (relationships with partners who have narcissism or psychopathy). Her seminal work and research helped launch the ‘Narcissistic and Psychopathic Abuse’ field. She is an author of hundreds of articles for survivors on narcissistic abuse and her books include the highly popular How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved (Hunter House, 2005), the award-winning Women Who Love Psychopaths: Inside the Relationships of Inevitable Harm With Psychopaths, Sociopaths & Narcissists (Mask Publishing, 2018), as well as the clinically-relevant Counseling Victims of Violence (American Counseling Association, 1991). She is the current president of The Association for NPD/Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research & Education, and the CEO of The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sandra Brown has employment relationships with the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction & Public Pathology Education and the Assn for NPD/Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research & Education. She receives royalties as a published author. Sandra Brown receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations
Non-financial: Sandra Brown has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Sherri Renner, JD Related seminars and products

---

Sherri Renner, JD, is a former litigator and a survivor of intimate relationships with Cluster-B disordered individuals. Sherri is the founder of LawYou America and its members-only Association for Pro Se Advancement (self-represented). She dedicates her education and years of experience to assisting pro se litigants, especially other survivors who are caught up in legal battles with their former partners. She is a column writer for the institute’s website and newsletter in which she addresses legal issues and pathological love relationships.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sherri Renner is the owner of Lawyou, LLC. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sherri Renner has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Identify the stages of litigation, legal proceedings, and gain familiarity with legal related terms (mediators, custody evaluators, etc) to better understand and support clients during various parts of their legal process.
2. Learn trauma-informed strategies to support clients as they process the impact of court.
3. Recognize legal concerns such as confidentiality, Americans with Disabilities Act, and more.
4. Know when and how to seek consultation, support and practice self-care when working with survivors in the legal system.

Outline

Why Doesn’t Family Court “Get it?”

• How to work in a “broken system”
• “Utopia Myopia” & child’s best interest
• Know why survivors end up in court more
• Systemic cognitive dissonance
• Pathology doesn’t stop at the courthouse door
• When courts don’t consider Domestic Violence

Introduction and Purpose of Family Court

• Support clients through various stages of litigation
• Help clients avoid deeper traumas in court
• Enhance insight into client’s experience in the courtroom 
• Differentiate legal information versus legal advice
• Identify “high-conflict” cases where IPV is present

Litigation and Family Court

• Dispel incorrect notions of the judge’s role
• Understand litigation as a creative process
• Differences clients face in adversarial versus inquisitorial proceedings
• Shortcomings of adversarial proceedings for survivors
• Know what happens in each litigation stage
• Alternatives to family court and litigation

Domestic Violence and Family Court

• The new term, “legal abuse”
• Challenges to stopping legal abuse
• Differentiate criminal versus civil protective orders
• The problem of family courts deciding issues of abuse
• Understand common pitfalls of court
• Connecting past violence to prevent future harm
• Your role in advocacy 
• Accommodations for trauma under the ADA 

Treatment Issues

1. Trauma associated with family course
2. Post-separation abuse in high-conflict cases
3. Account for “institutional trauma”
4. Big costs of “Legal Abuse Syndrome” and PTSD roots
5. Set clinical expectations for clients involved in court proceedings
6. 8-Step protocol for support clients with court trauma
7. How court proceedings can impact the clinician & the role of self-care
    

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counsellors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psych Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals