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5 J. Child Custody 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/wjcc5 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction to the Special Issue on Parenting Coordination Matthew J. Sullivan Parenting Coordination (PC) is a burgeoning new professional role in the family courts in North America. This Special Issue of the Journal of Child Custody on PC is the first of its kind, dedicated to the current development of this highly specialized mental health and legal hybrid role. PC continues the proliferation of alternatives to the traditional legal-adversarial process of families in transition. Unlike many alter- native dispute resolution processes, however, PCs provide services to the most conflicted coparents and the most vulnerable children. Judges, attorneys and mental health professionals have long agreed that the profound psychological and relational issues that character- ize these families make them a poor fit for the more adversarial legal processes they typically find themselves repeatedly utilizing. In the early 1990s, PC emerged from grass-roots collaboration of these professionals, initially in case-by-case experimental interventions. These humble PC beginnings have led to a more standardized role, with greater uniformity in professional practice across jurisdictions. The role of PC, in his/her efforts to intervene with the high-conflict coparents to assist them in implementing their parenting plans, is one of the most challenging roles a professional can perform. The articles in this volume provide a much-needed professional resource to pro- fessionals who embrace the challenge of this emerging role. The articles in this volume provide a picture of the current state of development of parenting coordination. In the opening article, I provide a conceptual understanding of why the PC process may be helpful to chronically conflicted coparents. Structural family systems theory has helped me anchor my work in the trenches with high con- flict families in transition for two decades. Hopefully, sharing some of Journal of Child Custody, Vol. 5(1/2) 2008 Available online at http://jcc.haworthpress.com C 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1080/15379410802070344 1

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