A child custody evaluation is a structured, thoughtful process designed to understand your family’s unique dynamics and help determine what arrangement best supports your child’s emotional and developmental needs.
My role is to gather comprehensive information, assess family functioning, and provide clear, balanced recommendations centered on the best interests of the child.
Most evaluations are completed within 6–8 sessions, depending on the complexity of the case. While every family is different, the general process looks like this:
Each parent participates in an extended one-on-one meeting with me. These sessions allow time to share your history, concerns, parenting strengths, and perspective on the current situation.
In most cases, parents will meet together for part of the process. This allows me to better understand areas of agreement and disagreement, observe communication patterns, and discuss co-parenting dynamics.
If there are concerns regarding domestic violence or safety, accommodations will be made to ensure parents are not in contact outside of structured, evaluator-present settings.
Each child is interviewed individually in a developmentally appropriate manner. When appropriate, siblings may be seen together. In some cases, I may also observe parent-child interactions.
When relevant, I may speak with therapists, teachers, physicians, or other important individuals involved in the child’s life to gather additional information.
Toward the end of the process, parents may meet jointly to review findings and discuss recommendations. When appropriate, we will also work toward drafting a structured parenting plan based on the evaluation results.
Custody evaluations can feel overwhelming. My approach is thorough, child-centered, and grounded in clinical experience. I aim to create a process that is structured, respectful, and focused on long-term stability for children.
Every family system is different, and while there is a general framework, the evaluation may be adapted when special circumstances warrant it. Final decisions regarding process structure remain at the discretion of the evaluator to ensure integrity and fairness.
Initial Cost for Child Custody Evaluations are $7000 ($3500 per party). Further details related to cost can be discussed after initial outreach.