From March 2000-present I have written a monthly article for:

THE DETROIT LEGAL NEWS; AND THE OAKLAND COUNTY LEGAL NEWS.

The following articles are a partial list of topics covered in monthly articles published over the last few years regarding treatment, forensic work, and related subjects in these publications:

Professional Case Preparation

More and more scientific evidence, or quasi-scientific evidence, is being presented in the court, and the courts tend to place a high degree of credibility in these reports, regardless of whether the report merits such credibility. In fact, courts routinely allow evidence which both the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association have deemed is unreliable. But how is one to distinguish between good and bad science..?

The Pitfalls of Expert Testimony

Recently the Michigan Supreme Court rules committee voted to recommend seriously limiting the nature and amount of testimony that could be given by an expert witness... This is a good thing... Unfortunately, the new rules regarding who can testify in the court, or the limits of opinions expressed by these experts, will not change the most grievous errors made by members of our profession...

Why Forensic Interviews Favor the Accuser

Protocol is not followed from the beginning interview, which often consists of leading questions by parents and rarely includes a narrative, which is the best form of evidence in these cases... Forensic interviews never end: the accuser can keep making allegations until they find someone who believes them...

When Abuse Allegations Are Valid

…It is generally agreed among mental health professionals that sexual abuse is more damaging than almost any other abuse that can be inflicted on a child, short of permanent physical disfigurement or debilitating injury…Both men and women who have been sexually abused experience profoundly damaged self-esteem. They tend to blame themselves, feeling deeply guilty and ashamed, thinking they must have done something wrong to bring on the abuse... The victim’s sense of boundaries is profoundly affected. In most cases they have been exploited by someone whose job it was to protect them, totally violating their sense of security and safety…

Diagnosing Substance Abuse in Forensic Cases

The two most useful instruments for diagnosing alcoholism and alcohol abuse are 1. The reports of significant others, and 2. The psychosocial construct of symptoms associated with the condition. Family members often give information confirmatory of abuse and/or alcoholism, even though they may not realize at the time. Such symptoms are…

Nurture vs. Structure

Rarely can it be said of an entire society that everyone missed the boat. Even when it is said, it is rarely the case. Yet there are some ideas that take hold of a culture that are very wrong and do great harm, but no one seems to get it—at least at the time. To say that I have discovered such a case of universally accepted error seems even to myself to be presumptuous, yet I believe it to be true...

The Need to Discern Valid from Invalid Scientific Evidence

...Medical and /or other scientific evidence decides an increasing number of legal cases; especially abuse cases in which the children are not old enough to testify themselves. It seems unlikely, however, that the state will follow the AMA recommendation that every effort be made to hire objective experts, preferably having them selected by the court. To do so is not the customary method of proceeding in our adversarial system. Moreover, it takes power out of the hands of the attorneys on both sides of the case to influence the outcome. Judges, who are lawyers also, are unlikely to make a decision that they would perceive as limiting the ability of attorneys to present their case...

Ethical Issues and Relations with the Legal Profession

APA Guidelines For Child Custody Evaluations (Excerpts)... The Psychologist avoids multiple relationships. Psychologists generally avoid conducting a child custody evaluation in a case in which the psychologist served in a therapeutic role for the child or his or her immediate family or has other involvement that may compromise the psychologist’s objectivity... The psychologist does not give any opinion regarding the psychological functioning of any individual who has not been personally evaluated... Code Of Ethics Of The National Association Of Social Workers (Excerpts) Conflicts of Interests... Social workers should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest that interfere with the exercise of professional discretion and impartial judgment... Social workers should not engage in dual or multiple relationships with clients or former clients in which there is a risk of exploitation or potential harm to the client...

Forensic Interviewing In Sex Abuse Cases: the State of the Art

In the book, Investigative Interviews of Children, the basis for the Michigan Protocol for Interviewing Children Suspected of Abuse, the authors, Drs. Deborah Poole and Michael Lamb, report the following distinctions between forensic and non-forensic interviewing beginning at P. 106: "Many professionals who work with children were trained primarily to provide services after the need for intervention had already been identified…the underlying assumptions of therapeutic interviews often undermine or contradict those that guide investigative interviews, and thus most authors warn against professionals assuming dual roles with individual clients…"

Parental Alienation

... The majority of these cases-at least the ones that result in legal action-involve a deliberate attempt to remove the child from contact with the target parent for reasons that address the needs of the parent doing the alienating, rather than the child. The motivation for this alienation is usually either the convenience of the alienating parent, or a willingness to use the children to inflict revenge on a hated ex-spouse...

Treatment Professionals Beware

...Much has been written on the legal and ethical reasons treatment professionals ought not to provide evidence in court.[1] Essentially, the reasons are that in most cases it is both bad psychology and bad law. Because a treating therapist develops a therapeutic alliance with his client, the treatment professional is not equipped offer objective testimony. Furthermore, satisfactory evidence to support a treatment diagnosis is woefully inadequate under current forensic standards...

What Fathers Need to Know About Parenting

...We should never make the mistake of thinking that we will let mom have all the responsibility of caring for children when they are babies and we will start interacting with them when they are older, less trouble and more fun. The most important bonding occurs during a child’s first year of life. If we miss it, we may yet develop a good relationship with that child, but the bond will never be what it could have been. Plus, the child’s brain development is most active in the first three years of life. If the child is well nurtured during this time period, he or she is most likely to develop to their full mental and emotional potential. Therefore, getting involved in our children’s lives as early as possible cannot be over-emphasized...

Let the Children Have A Voice

...The question of whether the child will have a voice in such cases is an important one. Most of the forensic psychologists that I have talked to believe that the children's opinions should be offered to the court and the attorneys in the report. I agree. Which of us would feel that we had received due process if we were not allowed in the courtroom and not provided with legal representation in a process that is ostensibly intended to serve our best interests?

The Strategy of False Allegations

...It is not hard to achieve the complete brainwashing of a child in these circumstances. The research…on child development has concluded that children between the ages of three and five years old cannot clearly distinguish what they remember from what they have been told they remember. Actually, this information is not new; Jean Piaget, considered to be the father of developmental psychology, pointed it out anecdotally in Play, Dreams, and Imitation back in 1962 (when he) related a story of his own abduction from—and subsequent rescue by—his nanny. He reports having a very vivid recollection of the incident. The only problem was that it had never happened; it turned out to have been a hoax, perpetrated by his nanny for the apparent purpose of ingratiating herself to Piaget's parents. Later in life she got religion and felt the need to confess the lie in a letter to his parents. So, Piaget had a vivid recollection of something he later learned had never happened...

To Tell the Truth

...Despite the fact that the American Psychological Association position paper on the polygraph puts its reliability at 61% (Or 11% higher than a random guess), attorneys, prosecutors, police and the general public continue to place a high degree of credibility upon this measure of physiological stress responses to probative questions...

Sex Crimes, Forensic Truth and Videotape

(Michigan) protocol does not require that the process be videotaped, although the research and supporting literature suggest that taping is desirable. Anyone who has taped this process is aware that much goes on in an interview of this sort that cannot be captured in notes, and that taping is clearly the best way to get at and preserve the truth. Moreover, the literature (quoted in previous articles) recommends taping the process at the earliest possible interview. This has several advantages: It cuts down on the number of necessary interviews, and hence the traumatic impact, to the child being interviewed; it prevents distortion over time, which can and does occur as a result of repeated questioning about the same subject; and it records the degree of interviewer influence...

Anger Management: Some Old Ideas About A Hot Topic

The ability to develop negotiation skills is essential to being able to meet one's own needs in a socially acceptable manner. The “win-win” philosophy is a concept that anyone involved in negotiations (like psychologists and lawyers) as part of their work takes for granted, yet it is a novel concept for many who have been raised in an environment where there was always a winner who got what they wanted and a loser who rarely did. If a person can develop the notion that “both of us can get our needs met if we talk it out..., they are less likely to resort to force out of fear that it is the only way to win. But as Dr. Abraham Low said, "Temper blocks insight", so we need to "drop the temper", while expressing the feeling (concern)...

MRE 703, The Effects of the Rule Change on Expert Testimony in Family Court

...Legally then, there is still a gap between what is deemed to be ethical mental health practice by our own ethics codes, and what is permissible testimony under law. And it is not that the law does not recognize the difference between treatment and investigation; the child protection statute mandates that investigations conducted by State employees follow a protocol adopted by the State for such purposes. Unfortunately, the law does not yet cover all mental health practitioners working independently or in free-standing clinics, so these investigations disguised as therapy continue to be legal for those who don’t know they are unethical, while they are illegal for those who know the difference... Time for another rule change?

False Allegations of Sexual Abuse: What Can Be Done

...One insightful judge asked a treatment professional, who was testifying in a case in which I was involved, why the mother and child were doing treatment for a problem which had to do with the father's relationship with the child. The obvious answer was that what was going on was not treatment at all, but investigation. But a fair investigation also involves an attempt to obtain information from all parties involved. Treatment professionals in these cases see themselves as having a responsibility to "crack the case" by getting the child to admit the abuse that everyone knows happened. They often put enormous pressure on a child over an extended period of time to disclose, and children often cave in under such pressure...

The Therapist As Advocate

...Judge William Giovan of the 3^rd Circuit Court in Wayne County, Michigan has stated that the main reason for his campaign to revise MRE 703 was to get rid of this meaningless, costly and time-consuming misuse of the Courts’ time and resources. If the mental health professional has a role in the Courts, it is as the Court’s expert who is there to provide objective evidence. Providing a partisan argument is the lawyer’s domain...

Parental Alienation II: Why Common Sense Doesn’t Work

...It is only reasonable then, to reintroduce the child to the alienated parent gradually; perhaps initially through a supervised parenting establishment for an hour a week; then through supervision by a trusted relative for longer periods of time; and then proceeding on to unsupervised parenting time. By this time the child would have had enough face time with the alienated parent to reestablish the bond with this parent, and could make a smooth transition to a regular parenting time schedule with a minimum of psychological trauma…Common sense would dictate this approach…(but) In this particular instance, involving both law and psychology, the common sense approach has almost no chance of working. If we look beneath the surface, the reasons it doesn’t work are fairly obvious...

Current Standards for Driver License Renewal Evaluations.

The New SUBSTANCE ABUSE EVALUATION (ALCOHOL AND DRUGS) AND REQUEST FOR HEARING requests far more information than previously sought by evaluators handling these cases. It also affords hearing officers the authority to reach conclusions about clients they have not done sufficient evaluation to assess, such as mental health diagnosis and its impact on sobriety. Moreover, they may not be qualified to offer an opinion on the subject if they had. Since the opinions issued by these officers do not contain their credentials, or even their first names, it is hard to know what they are qualified to determine. However, in addition to the information traditionally asked for in substance abuse evaluations, the DAAD is currently requiring...

Recovery Inc.: The Best Kept Secret I Know

...Most people are very familiar with the success of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the many spin-off groups that are based on the 12-step model. What surprises me is that more people are not aware of the most effective support group I have found for treating anxiety and depressive neurosis, and even more serious forms of these conditions. The group I am referring to is Recovery, Inc...

The Most Committed Wins (The Psychology of War)

I don't know whether the war in Iraq is necessary or not ...I am reminded of the words of Gandhi, when he asked, "What person would not rather be ruled by a despot from his own country than a benign power from a foreign country?"... We are finding, and will continue to find, our enemy to be highly resolved, and to have a level of commitment beyond our comprehension. I believe this is true because he is fighting for national autonomy, protection of his religion and culture, and the right to control and profit from his own natural resources. These goals are powerful motivators... The psychology of modern warfare is basically quite simple; the most committed will prevail in the end. Take away all the hype and posturing and I see no indication that we are any more committed in this war than we were in Korea, Viet Nam, Iran, Somalia, etc. Therefore, I have no reason to believe that the outcome will be any different...

Acquiring Forensic Expertise

...Acquiring forensic expertise can be a very hazardous process, especially for someone who has no interest in participating in the courts to begin with. But there are a few basic principles that are helpful to keep in mind in dealing with cases that either are all ready, or have a good chance of becoming forensic. When I am involved in such a case I make it clear from the beginning just what my involvement is in the case. If I am the treatment professional in a marital case, I explain from the beginning that I take no notes in these cases except as may be required by law (if, for example, one of my clients may be homicidal or suicidal and I have made a referral or have a duty to warn), that I will decline to honor a request for information, and if escorted to court I will not give testimony…If I am involved in the case as a forensic expert I make it clear that there is no confidentiality in such a case, and, given that both parties will have important information on the other side, even if I promised confidentiality I would have no way of controlling who gets the report once it is out of my hands, and would only succeed in creating liability for myself with such a promise….

The Pendulum or the Polarization?

...What seems to be different about America at this stage of our history is the unwillingness to acknowledge that the other side has a point, and, more importantly, that they should be allowed to express it. Historically, it has been the right wing that is supposedly intolerant, with a narrow view of moral behavior and a liaise-faire, survival of the fittest insensitivity to the plight of minorities and the poor. But we now have a new term for the intolerance of the left, called being "politically correct", which is code for the notion that in blue America, and the blue sections of red America, free speech is not permitted if it conflicts with the stated positions of blue America. This is particularly disconcerting because it is the left that has long held itself out as the champion of the disenfranchised, and which now seems to be seeking the disenfranchisement of anyone who disagrees with their views...

Seemed Like a Good Idea

...The underlying constitutional, psychological and pragmatic issues will be retained in any version of a grandparent visitation law that is passed. In passing such a law the state oversteps its boundaries and invades the personal space of fit parents by making it necessary for them to go to court to defend their actions, and setting up the court as moral arbiter of parental behavior. It assumes insight it cannot possibly have and is unlikely to objectively obtain about what their child needs. If we think the family courts are clogged with revolving door cases now, wait until we see the storm this will brew...

What Is the Prosecutor’s Motive?

"When I wrote it, nobody contemplated the mother cooperatively participating in the beating of herself to kill the unborn child. We’d simply change the law and under those circumstances, the mother would be chargeable." So Amber Hunt Martin quotes State Rep. Bill Van Regenmorter, R-Georgetown Township in her Feb. 7, 2005 Detroit Free Press article entitled, Legislator Seeks Change in Prenatal Protection Act…Martin reports that Regenmorter plans to rework the law and present it to the House by mid March for approval. However, getting approval for a revised bill will not be the slam-dunk that Regenmorter seems to think. Anyone who supports a woman’s right to an abortion is going to be reluctant to support a bill that in anyway limits that right…To illustrate, Martin quotes Renee Chelian, executive director of Northland Family Planning Centers. ‘“I would definitely be looking to see any impact on a woman trying to have a legal abortion, no matter what method is used,” said Chelian, pointing to women who induce their own abortions, such as with morning-after pills...

Therapy Court

Somewhere in America, today, somewhere in Michigan, or most likely, in several places in Michigan, court is in session. The presiding judge is not really a judge and has no legal training. He is not even a lawyer, nor has he made any effort to study the applicable law. Nonetheless, there are no laws or (enforced) ethics codes preventing him from trying this type of case. It has not occurred to him, or even to much of the legal community that it is wrong for him to do so, so why should he concern himself? He doesn't even call this a court, but it is very much a court of law, and the stakes are very high. At issue is the termination of parental rights...

What Forensic Psychology Has to Teach Us About Treatment

...Forensic research and practice have taught us that we cannot always count on the presenting parent to provide us with accurate information about the child or his condition because the parent sometimes has a need to view the child’s problem in a way that is beneficial to them. We also have discovered that children are very susceptible to being led during interviews by either parental coaching or interviewer bias, and that repeated or leading questioning will suggest to the child that their responses were not what the interviewer expected to hear; they are the “wrong” answers. The best evidence in forensic cases comes from establishing a rapport with a child (as we would with any other client), and seeking a free narrative from the child concerning the events about which we are concerned. If this is true in forensic work, it begs the question, is this not also a good idea in other forms of mental health involvement, specifically treatment?...

How Much Government is too Much?

...Moreover, has the State really improved Cassandra’s life by removing her from her nuclear and extended family? The State has not succeeded in controlling the Cassandra’s outbursts, and my information is that they have found it necessary to use a degree of force to subdue the child forbidden to the parents. Can the State really supply this child anything that her family and extended family cannot? There is a substantial body of literature which shows that children tend to fare much better in intact and even single parent families than they do in foster care and State institutions, especially children who age out of foster care...

The Need to Adopt Forensic Protocol

On January 6, 2006 I proposed to the Board of the Michigan Association of Professional Psychologists (MAPP) that we, as an organization, adopt the State of Michigan Governor’s Task Force on Children's Justice and Family Independence Agency Forensic Interviewing Protocol. This protocol may be found at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/FIAPub779_13054_7.pdf. It was developed by Central Michigan University's Deborah Poole PhD, a nationally recognized researcher in the field of forensic psychology and, specifically, conducting children’s interviews, and a team of professionals working in various capacities relating to the disposition of allegations of abuse in this State. This protocol is mandatory for police, prosecutors, protective services workers, and interdisciplinary teams including police, prosecutors and mental health professionals conducting child interviews in suspected abuse cases for the State...

Evidence of the Need for a Rule Change?

...The loophole in the law, or contradiction between law and professional ethics/standards of practice, and case law/court rules and statute, which I envisioned at that time, and which would allow bad evidence in regardless of all the safeguards put in place to insure that just this sort of thing would not happen, has become a reality. Someone must now stand trial on the strength of nothing more than a parent's allegation. I ask again, is it time for another rule change?

Evidence of the Need for a Rule Change II

...Everywhere in Michigan, the Child Protection Law mandates that police and prosecutors are trained to and must do forensic interviews in these cases following Michigan Protocol. Sadly, police, prosecutors and the social workers who investigate these matters for DHSare required by law to practice proper forensic techniques, while other healthcare providers are not. Valid evidence comes from these videotaped interviews, and they form the basis of criminal prosecution. The fact that there was no criminal prosecution suggests to me there is no such evidence. If, despite this, a court action is allowed to go forward, then all it takes to make anyone face criminal or civil liability is a malicious or hysterical parent. That is not acceptable.

Blaming the Victim

Michigan law states clearly that an adult who has sexual intercourse with a person who is between the ages of 13 and 16 is guilty of 3^rd degree criminal sexual conduct. [2]The law does not consider this a “technicality” to be negated by a consideration of whether or not the sexual activity was consensual…The motivation for doing so is clearly not legal, but political…Children of this age are dealing with issues of self-esteem, peer-group pressures (e.g., to use alcohol and drugs) and the desire to belong, and scholastic and career path choices. In addition to learning to deal with sexual feelings accompanying rapid hormonal changes, there are other significant physiological changes taking place, including the development of the brain’s frontal lobe, which apparently does not keep pace with sexual development [3]…Michigan's statute is intended to give children a few precious years in which they may come to understand these responsibilities before they can be exploited by older adults who do understand these consequences for the child, but selfishly disregard them in pursuit of their own pleasure. Our laws clearly say that this exploitation is criminal, and not just a minor crime (or technicality if you will), but a felony...

Whores, Pimps and the Judiciary

Attorneys with whom I have worked as a forensic mental health expert sometimes like to needle me about being a whore. Of course, they say it with a good-natured smile, but we both know they mean it. Sometimes I let it go, but sometimes I smile good-naturedly and say, “Well, it may be true that all the whores in our business are mental health experts, but all the pimps are lawyers. ”They laugh, but of course, they know that I mean it too. In the relationship between the whore and the pimp, everyone knows that it is the pimp who has the power, and so it is in the Courts. Pimps like whores because they can exercise power over them that they could not have in a healthy relationship. Whores, for one reason or another, have a need to be exploited. At worst, they are addicts or people who have emotional disabilities or believe they have no other realistic choice. Of course, in our business it means that their opinions—and hence their integrity—are for sale...

PUBLICATIONS IN THE MICHIGAN LAWYER'S WEEKLY

12/23/2002:Fit Parents Shouldn’t Have to Fight to Parent Own Kids; 7/22/2002: What's Wrong with a Presumption of Equality? 3/12/2001: The Pitfalls of Expert Testimony; 2/15/99: Due Process: Good Psychology in Cases Involving Children; 1/11/99: Using Mediation during Child Custody Evaluations.

MICHIGAN ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS NEWSLETTER

10/98: Ken Starr and Confidentiality; 6/03: Treatment Professional Beware

THE NEWS-HERALD NEWSPAPER

Self-Help Group is the Best Kept Secret; Tips for Parents: Suppress anger, Set Examples; Love Means Having to Say You're Sorry; Addictive Love Can Be Harmful, Not Romantic; Middle Ground - Self-Acceptance is A Fine Line; Oedipus Story Is A Far Reaching One; There is No Values - Free Counseling; Prevention is the Key to Drug Abuse.