Not all marriages can work.  Getting divorced is one of the most stressful experiences in life.  Above all, parents are concerned about their children’s well-being.  Creating a parenting plan that is in the best interest of your child is my primary goal.  

 

I am an experienced parenting evaluator and have conducted parenting plan evaluations since 1992.  I have considerable clinical and research expertise on marital conflict and child adjustment.  My work includes:

 

  • Serving as a Research Professor in Child Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology at the University of Washington.

 

  • Being appointed as Associate Director of the University of Washington’s Center for Child and Family Well-Being.

 

 

  • Conducting research on the effects of marital and family conflict on children’s adjustment.  

 

  • Writing extensively in the area of marital conflict.  Among my numerous publications are articles entitled Buffering Children from Marital Conflict and Dissolution; Domestic Violence, Emotion Coaching and Child Adjustment; and Patterns of Marital Conflict Predict Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior.  My book on parenting, Meta-Emotion:  How Families Communicate Emotionally, received widespread attention both locally and nationally.  

 

  • Developing a parenting intervention for survivors of domestic violence and adapting that program for use with children with conduct problems.

I am nationally recognized as a leading expert in the area of family relations.  I have been awarded over $10 million of funding from the National Institutes of Health for my work on parenting, domestic violence, childhood aggression, adolescent depression and family adjustment in the context of pediatric cancer.  I have lectured extensively on the effects of marital conflict on children, and on parenting qualities that buffer children from marital dissolution.  I have also taught courses on child and adolescent behavior disorders, children’s social development, emotion, and adult psychopathology at the University of Washington.


I received my B.A. in Psychology from McGill University, and my Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I have a Parenting Evaluation Certificate from the Parenting Evaluation Training Program at the University of Washington, and am a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of Washington.  I am a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) as well as the Washington Chapter of AFCC.  I am also a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).