
Lynn Fainsilber Katz, Ph.D
Strengthening individuals, couples and family relationships
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:
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Serving as a Research Professor in Child Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology at the University of Washington.
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Being appointed as Associate Director of the University of Washington’s Center for Child and Family Well-Being.
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Working with children and families on issues relating to marital conflict, parenting and family relationships for 25 years (click here for Dr. Katz’s CV).
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Conducting research on the effects of marital and family conflict on children’s adjustment.
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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.
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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).