Understanding Therapists’ Beliefs, Attitudes, and Approaches to Working with Families in High Conflict and Involved in Legal Proceedings

Abstract

Therapists of different mental health disciplines are often involved with families in high conflict who are enduring legal proceedings. Families in high conflict need the support of therapists due to the emotional turmoil often experienced. The need for therapy and other professional intervention has increased for these families, however, many therapists are hesitant to provide services to these families and are underprepared to work with them (Schmidt & Grigg, 2023). There is very little research regarding how therapists feel when working with families in high conflict who are engaged with the legal system. There is also little information on how therapists approach working with these families or evidence of effective practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore therapists’ beliefs, attitudes, and approaches when working with families in high conflict in the context of legal proceedings. Licensed therapists in a midwestern state were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews utilizing purposive sampling. Twenty licensed therapists self-identifying to have worked with families in high conflict were interviewed. Interviews averaged approximately 45 minutes each. Colaizzi’s phenomenological data analysis approach (1978) was used to analyze the interview transcripts. The results of this study identified five superordinate and 19 subordinate themes. The superordinate themes that emerged included: (1) reluctant to be involved in the legal process, (2) managing problematic parents, (3) training/experience, (4) needing self-protection, and (5) no unified therapy approach. The dissertation closes with a final discussion of a summary of the findings, limitations, implications of the study, and potential future research directions.