Reunification Therapy · Court-Involved Family Work · NJ & NY
When a child and a parent have lost each other in the conflict.
Structured, court-informed therapy for families where divorce or separation has ruptured the relationship between a parent and child — and where rebuilding it requires a clinician who understands both the family and the litigation around it.
The work
This is the work most clinicians won’t take. It is the work this practice was built for.
When a child resists or refuses contact with a parent after separation, the family arrives carrying two competing stories — and usually two attorneys, a custody order, and years of accumulated injury. Most therapists decline this work because it is contentious, scrutinized, and unforgiving of clinical naivety. It requires someone who can hold a child’s actual experience, a parent’s grief, another parent’s fear, and a court’s expectations — all at once, without being captured by any of them.
Elisabeth Coffey has spent twenty-six years working with adolescents and families, with deep specialized fluency in high-conflict divorce, coercive control, and the dynamics through which children become enlisted in adult conflict. She approaches every reunification case without a predetermined conclusion: a child’s resistance may reflect genuine experience, the influence of the conflict itself, or — most often — some combination that has to be carefully understood before it can be changed. The work is methodical, neutral, and centered on the child.
How the work proceeds
How the work proceeds.
- 01
The foundation
Reunification work begins with a clear structure: review of the court order or consent agreement defining the scope of the work, intake sessions with each parent separately, and individual sessions with the child. Everyone understands the roles, the boundaries, and what will and will not be communicated before the work begins.
- 02
The child’s pace, the court’s structure
Contact between parent and child is rebuilt gradually and deliberately — in session, with preparation on both sides, at a pace the child can tolerate and the structure can sustain. Progress is real when it holds outside the office.
- 03
The parents’ work
Both parents have work to do in reunification — the parent rebuilding the relationship, and the parent whose household the child lives in. Each meets with Elisabeth separately. The conflict between the adults is kept out of the child’s repair.
- 04
Communication with the court and counsel
Where the order provides for it, Elisabeth communicates with counsel, guardians ad litem, and the court regarding participation and progress — professionally, neutrally, and within the boundaries defined at the outset.
Requirements
What this work requires to succeed.
Reunification therapy is accepted by court order or with the written consent of both parents. A defined scope, an agreed fee arrangement, and both parents’ commitment to the structure are conditions of the work — they are what make repair possible. Elisabeth accepts a limited number of reunification cases at a time to ensure each family receives the attention this work demands.
High-conflict legal support & the Coffey Containment Method™ →“A child should never have to choose a parent to survive a divorce.”
Inquire about reunification work.
For attorneys and guardians ad litem: contact directly to discuss whether a case is appropriate for referral. For parents: an initial consultation will clarify whether this structure fits your family’s situation. All inquiries are confidential.