Forensic psychology refers to the practice of psychology to assist the legal system. Most often, forensic psychologists are involved in psychological assessment of individuals who are involved with the legal system. Forensic psychologists may also be involved in providing therapeutic services required by the legal system. Forensic psychologists should have training in the law, forensic psychology, and clinical psychology to practice competently. Forensic psychologists can work with individuals involved with the civil, criminal, and family courts. Dr. Landry focuses her practice working with parents and children involved with the family court system. As an attorney and a psychologist trained in both forensic and clinical psychology, Dr. Landry draws on her knowledge and experience in these fields to assist families who find themselves involved in the family court process. Dr. Landry provides the following forensic psychological services:

Depending on the specific issues in your case, your attorney, or the court, might refer to your family evaluation using any one of these terms. The focus of all of these evaluations, though, is the best interests of the children, which refers to specific factors your state has identified as important to consider in reaching decisions regarding child custody and parenting time arrangements. Dr. Landry utilizes these standards, as well as guidance from a number of professional organizations, to identify areas of focus for her evaluations. These evaluations will include multiple interviews with both parents, children, and other significant adults in your children’s lives; observations of each parent with the children, oftentimes both in her office and within the home environments; psychological testing and parenting questionnaires; and outreach to medical, mental health, school, and other professionals. In some cases, when issues are much more circumspect, Dr. Landry may perform an abbreviated evaluation, known as a brief focused assessment, to address a specific issue that is preventing the parents from resolving their parenting time dispute.

Sometimes if there is concern for one parent related to mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, or other risk factors that could potentially impact parenting time, that parent will be referred for a forensic psychological and/or risk evaluation to assess the potential impact of risk factors on the parents’ ability to safely and effectively parent the children. These evaluations typically involve interviews of both parents, although the primary focus is on the parent who has been referred for evaluation, psychological testing, and review of medical, mental health, substance abuse, legal, or other relevant professional records.

At times, the courts utilize psychologists to intervene with parents or families from a therapeutic approach. For example, some parents are referred for co-parenting therapy to assist them in improving their communication, reducing conflict in the co-parenting relationship, and insulating their children from their conflict. Other times, families are referred for therapy to address a breakdown in a parent-child relationship. This therapy is often referred to as reunification therapy and focuses on helping families identify the factors reinforcing a child’s resistance and providing skills to both parents and children to repair and improve the parent-child relationship. Dr. Landry takes family systems and solution-focused approaches to working with families in court-involved therapies. Unlike more traditional clinical therapeutic relationships, court-involved therapies are not a confidential process and Dr. Landry will only accept these cases under Court Order specifying the goals of therapy and authorizing her to submit period summaries to the Court.