Important insight about how to navigate court orders, legal filings, and participation in family law proceedings

Interview with Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

  • Course Description

    Navigating treatment planning with clients/families in litigation can be daunting for even seasoned therapists. Therapists working with families with active family law cases may be presented with court orders, legal filings, and conflicting perspectives from parents regarding the clinical treatment trajectory itself, leaving therapists at risk to lose focus and control of session structure if not handled constructively. This interview serves as a discussion of procedures and “tips” for therapists from the perspective of a mental health clinician who now works as a child custody evaluator and mediator for the court system, to help ensure that clinicians are working within appropriate and ethical parameters with family law clients. Helpful feedback about how to manage letter requests and appearing on the stand is also provided.

  • Learning Objectives

    Upon completing this course, participants will be able to: Establish at least one appropriate and ethical protocol for assessment and treatment planning when working with clients/families that are seeking treatment on the basis of a court order (or may require documentation from a therapist in the future regarding treatment); Describe the decision-making process for assessing whether you can provide adequate treatment for the families based on their needs from court orders, or from their requests that may involve the court process; Explain boundary considerations relating to scope of practice with clients/families in custody disputes


    Target Audience and Instructional Level
    This course is intended for psychologists, therapists, social workers, clinical counselors, and addiction counselors. Instructional level: Introductory

  • How To Take This Course

    In order to receive a certificate of completion reflecting the associated CE credit hour, you must:
    #1: Have an active paid Clearly Clinical membership
    #2: Listen to the corresponding course podcast
    #3: Achieve a passing grade on the post-presentation test (the test has up to ten questions and you must earn a score of at least 80%; you are able to re-test)
    #4: Complete the requested course evaluation.

    Course elements (including the course audio, post-test, and requested course evaluation) can be completed on a computer or mobile device via your Clearly Clinical account.

  • Course Format

    This high-quality and interesting course contains a one-hour, non-interactive audio podcast presentation which is available for free via all major public podcast providers. You can also listen to and download the file via our course player.

  • Commercial Support

    There is no known commercial support or conflict of interest for this CE program, presenter, sponsor, instructor, or content.

  • Certificate Access Details

    Once you've completed the course, your certificate will automatically populate in the 'Certificate' section of your account; it will also be emailed to you. Access to completion certificate will expire 365 days after issuance. Course certificates will be on file for ten (10) years from date of course completion.

  • Accommodations

    If you have special needs or need an accommodation, please email us at info@clearlyclinical.com and we will do our best to assist you.

Interviewer and Interviewee

April Tith, LMFT #96764

Family Court Therapist & Cultural Humility Trainer

April Tith, LMFT has worked extensively in community mental health settings conducting psychotherapy and advocacy using multimodal approaches to assist children and families battling mental health symptoms and struggles; often stemming from complex trauma and environmental factors. She is passionate about assisting underserved and minority populations, and has done so since the beginning of her career. April has been trained in several evidence-based practices, and also extended assistance in Quality Assurance documentation review to promote efficiency and compliance to ethical standards for clinicians. Currently, April works as a Family Court Services Specialist for the Los Angeles Superior Court, and also conducts online psychotherapy.

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias, MS, LMFT

Interviewer & Clearly Clinical Founder

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias (she/her) is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and the Founder and President of Clearly Clinical. She has specializations in Clinical Documentation, Best Practice, and Utilization Review, and works closely with clinical teams across the US as a trainer and national conference presenter; Beth was formerly an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in the Graduate Psychology and Education department. Licensed in California and Oregon, she provides therapy via her private practice to young adult and adult clients, members of the LGBTQ population, and those with addictive disorders. She has two young children, a super cool spouse who helps out with Clearly Clinical's tech, and a rescue dog.

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