Colorado Family Law For Marriage and Family Therapists

Matthews & Matthews has a strong commitment to the possibility of coordinated care by attorneys and therapists. We believe that coordinated care between attorney and therapist during the divorce process will support the best possible long term result from a divorce proceeding; both for the client and their family. The assistance of a skilled therapist can make the key difference in removing obstacles to good decision-making in a client’s case.

Our Managing Partner, Leslie Matthews has been working with the Colorado Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to pioneer new ways to support coordinated care during the divorce process.

Our first step was to develop a course for therapists to train them in the basics of Colorado Divorce and Custody Law. The course title is “Colorado Divorce and Custody Law for Therapists (everything you need to know to support your client through the Colorado divorce process)”. The course covers the key issues addressed during a divorce, the process of the divorce and the key emotional hotspots that therapists can expect their clients to deal with along the way. We have held our therapist course a number of times in 2008 through CAMFT and intend to continue to provide it to therapist groups that make the request.

The second step we have taken is to pioneer a consent form that allows clients to give permission for their therapist and attorney to coordinate care without loosing attorney/client or therapist/client privilege. Leslie Matthews worked together with Dennis Lane, a health law expert to develop this form. She has also written an article regarding the new form for the Colorado Association of Marriage and Family Therapists newsletter. This article explains the use of the Coordinated Care Permission Form (PDF) and the type of relationship between attorney and therapist it allows for and does not allow for.

Lastly, Leslie Matthews is currently researching and writing a professional article on Therapist/Client privilege in Colorado and across the United States.

Please feel to call or ask Leslie any questions you might have about our course for therapists or Attorney/Therapist coordinated care and how to set it up.