Confidentiality and an Emotionally Safe Space: Therapy provides a private, judgement-free environment where individuals can openly express their thoughts and feelings without fear.

Therapeutic Relationship and Guidance: Therapists offer compassionate listening, validation, and professional guidance to help clients navigate challenges, improve self-awareness, and find solutions right for them.

Personalized Strategies and Techniques: Therapy is tailored to each person’s needs. Evidence-based approaches are used to help clients work through difficulties and create the life they are working towards.

Therapy provides a safe, supportive space for children and youth to express their feelings, ask questions, and makes sense of their family changes. We support children to understand they are not to blame and that their emotions - sadness, anger, worry - are normal.

Emotional Support: Therapy gives children a neutral space to talk about their big feelings without worrying about hurting a parent’s feelings.

Building Coping Skills: Children are supported to learn ways to manage stress, transitions between homes, and possible conflict between parents. Therapy also provides a supportive way to challenge thoughts and misunderstandings.

Strengthening Resilience: Therapy teaches flexibility and problem-solving skills children need to handle family changes and works with children to maintain their self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

Co-parent therapy is aimed at supporting families, through the parents, to transition from being a one-household to a two-household family. It is focused on working together effectively for the wellbeing of the children and family system overall. Co-parent therapy is not like couples counselling - it helps move the family forward, not focuses on the past.

Key Co-Parent Therapy Goals:

• Improving Communication: Respectful communication processes and conflict management are structured to allow parents the ability to focus on practical and child-centered topics.

• Reduction of Conflict: Therapists work with parents to recognize their unique interaction (and conflict) patterns so they can find strategies to de-escalate tension and establish healthy boundaries.

• Developing Comprehensive Parenting Plans: Collaborative agreements on information sharing, school, health, and other decision making helps parents know what to expect in their restructured family, ultimately reducing anxiety and typical conflict points.

• Communication with Children: Co-parent therapy can support parents to have healthy conversations with their children about separation and divorce tailored to the child’s development level and supportive of relationships with both parents.

Court-ordered therapy can be very effective—especially in high-conflict or high-risk family situations—but it’s not just “regular therapy with a legal referral.” It’s a hybrid of clinical work and legal accountability. These files typically require some coordination between the legal system and the therapy services. They also provide some real benefits for individuals and families involved with the family law system.

Ensures participation and consistency
Because attendance is mandatory from a legal perspective, clients (or families) are more likely to show up regularly. This gives therapists a consistent window to do meaningful work, which can sometimes make outcomes comparable to voluntary therapy when the approach is appropriate.

Focused, goal-oriented intervention
Court orders usually specify goals (e.g., reunification, therapy for a child, co-parenting skills). This clarity can help structure therapy and keep everyone aligned.

Access to services that might not otherwise happen
Some families or individuals wouldn’t seek therapy voluntarily. A court order can act as a gateway to support and skill-building.

In Alberta there are two types of Practice Note 7 Interventions: Evaluative Interventions that are meant to gather more information for the Court to make a decision and Therapeutic Interventions that are meant to create change for the client(s) involved.

Evaluative Interventions:

• Triage / screening
  Early, brief assessment to identify key issues and what kind of intervention is needed.

• Voice of the Child (VOC) / Views of the Child report
  A structured way to present the child’s perspectives to the court without putting them directly in the middle of the dispute.

• Parent psychological evaluation
  Assessment of a parent’s functioning, mental health, or parenting capacity. Not available at Creating Solutions

• Child or adolescent assessment
  Focus on the child’s emotional, developmental, or relational needs.

• Focused or issue-specific assessments
  For example: risk assessments, attachment concerns, or specific parenting issues.

Therapeutic Interventions:

• Individual therapy (parent)
  Work with one parent on issues affecting parenting or co-parenting.

• Therapy for both parents (co-parenting therapy)
  Focus on communication, conflict reduction, and parenting coordination.

• Child therapy
  Supporting the child directly (e.g., coping with separation, anxiety).

• Family therapy (parent + child)
  Addressing relational dynamics and attachment issues.

• Parent–child reunification / remedial facilitated access
  Used when there’s resistance, estrangement, or breakdown in the relationship.

• Therapeutic intervention with various combinations
  (e.g., one parent + child, both parents + child, etc.)