There has been increased attention in the past decade to both develop interventions and to explore the key mechanisms of change to assist families who are at an impasse due to strained parent-child relationships, post-separation and divorce. This workshop will introduce an innovative approach of integrating apologies for forgiveness as a method for assisting families to move past the impasse of child resistance and rejection. This workshop will review the empirical evidence related to apologies and forgiveness-seeking, highlight the various ways apologies can be integrated into interventions with strained parent-child relationships, and provide practical strategies to help families create and deliver apologies within the therapeutic context to assist in repairing strained parent-child relationships.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

  1. Identify the methods for integrating apologies with children and families within family law matters.
  2. Compare and contrast the influence of methods and approaches of apologies within resist-refusal dynamics in the family.
  3. Consider a taxonomy for creating and delivering apologies as well as assessing the changes that need to occur to resolve parent-child contact problems.