I recently attended the AFCC Child Custody Symposium in Columbus, Ohio, entitled, “Shaping the Future: Screening and Assessing for Safety and Wellbeing in Parent-child Relationships.”

I found it inspiring that so many talented people dedicate themselves to learning, writing, and teaching about how we can better understand and serve the families involved in the probate court. The problem of children who resist or refuse a parent after divorce was a focus of numerous workshops.

As we all know, these are among the most disturbing and challenging situations we confront as we try to discern the bases for the response and struggle to address the problem effectively and compassionately.

Alongside longstanding topics of interest such as how to craft useful parenting plans and mediation techniques, newer topics of note included understanding the implications of the new coercive control statute that has been implemented in several states (including Massachusetts; see the article in this newsletter on this topic) within the context of IPV, as well as the risks and benefits of integrating artificial intelligence into forensic practice (which will be the topic of our MA AFCC annual conference on March 21^st, 2025; mark your calendars!).

I strongly encourage you all to watch for educational opportunities offered by National AFCC and to attend the upcoming National conference in May 2025 in New Orleans.

If I had to boil down my multitude of takeaways from the Columbus conference, it would be this: that no matter how well each of us performs our own role as a forensic professional (attorney, GAL, therapist, court officer, parenting coordinator, coach, mediator, judge), we cannot truly be effective unless we understand something about the role of the other professionals involved in a given matter and take this into consideration; we need to know how what we do interfaces with what others are doing in their roles. This was a theme that underlay many of the conference workshops.

I would like to think that’s where MA AFCC comes in! As our mission is education, we strive to give you the “what,” but so much depends on the “how,” how we coordinate our efforts to serve families involved with the court. Whether we realize it or not, we typically operate within an interactive system, each part of which can impact the other parts. Thus, functioning exclusively within our silos, no matter how spectacularly, is typically not what is most helpful to these families.

Furthermore, because of the stressful nature of our work, interaction with colleagues serves to help prevent burnout and, as was the case for me at the Columbus conference, invigorates us to continue doing this (often impossible) work. I find myself very appreciative that my colleagues are actually people I enjoy working with and value as wonderful friends. To that end, being a member of AFCC gives us the opportunity for the networking, camaraderie, support and collaboration that is not possible if we operate alone.

This year, the Massachusetts board is working to promote collaboration by looking to make our mailing list a more interactive place for sharing ideas, questions, etc., as well as pursuing new platforms for communication. We have prioritized membership gatherings such as our December holiday party so that we can revel in the socializing for which there is never enough time at our educational conferences. We are surveying the membership to understand better its make-up and challenges, and we are working on formalizing ways to guide collaborative efforts on complex cases involving multiple professionals.  In addition, we are considering new ways to work collaboratively other than what has become standard protocol, and we will be ensuring that access to our numerous educational endeavors is made available to those for whom there were obstacles in the past.

All this is to say that we are better together, when we know, respect, and collaborate with one another. I have been thrilled to lead this charge with our fantastic board of directors and will continue to look for opportunities to bring the entire membership into the fold as one community. As always, I welcome any input from members on ways to achieve this (and any other) goal.

Wishing you all a wonderful, collaborative 2025!

-Mira Zamansky Levitt, PhD