The Family Court due process can often be experienced by clients and attorneys as unwieldy and unpredictable given various mental health professionals involved, petitions made, allegations lodged, and evaluations conducted, all with life-altering parent-child relationship consequences. Randy Flood has provided psychological and consultative services for the courts, attorneys, and clients since 1992.
Flood’s specialized knowledge, well-crafted skills and services, and reputation among the psychological and legal community make him a valuable resource and guide. By leveraging his expertise you can gain the advantage you need to more successfully navigate evaluations, mediation, and litigation to get the just outcome you want and deserve.
Highly Recommend His Services
In the family law context, I have personally worked with Randy in two capacities: first, as a consultant; and second, as an expert witness. Randy is a great listener, thinker, and communicator, and I highly recommend his services.
Family Court Coaching
Randy Flood has extensive experience in coaching clients involved in family court proceedings. He has guided individuals who are taking part in custody and parenting time evaluations, parent-child reunification counseling, parent coordination, and parenting fitness evaluations. He helps them understand the process, protocols, and dynamics and their role in them.
It is difficult and anxiety-provoking enough to participate in these evaluation and counseling services when your role and parenting access are in question. Everything you’ve done, said, and say, and every move you’ve made or are making is scrutinized, analyzed, and interpreted by professionals involved in your case. Flood’s expertise can help you present the best version of yourself in each step of the process. He has expert experience and knowledge in:
- Resist and Refuse Dynamics in Parent-Child Contact Problems
- Domestic Violence
- Parental Alienation
- Differentiating Abuse and Parent-Child Estrangement from Parental Alienation Dynamics
- Parenting Fitness and Mental Health Problems
- Gender Biases in Family Court
Flood can’t change the facts in your case, but he can help in how you present them, and how you respond to assumed facts or allegations that are baseless or exaggerations of fact. He has observed countless individuals make key missteps out of emotion or naivete while participating in court-related evaluation and counseling services and has seen the unfortunate consequences of those missteps impact outcomes in their cases. Through his years of providing services to individuals caught up in family court, Flood has developed a keen insight into the most common traps and pitfalls people run into when they think it is good to say or do X, Y, Z when actually A, B, C is required in this situation and X, Y, Z at another time.
There are so many landmines to step on when you’re trying to navigate through family court. Rather than having to walk through uncharted territory alone, where “do-overs” aren’t allowed and major decisions are made from an accumulation of data points and trends, you can trust Flood to be your guide through family court.
Custody Evaluation
Recently, Mr. Flood was involved in a custody evaluation. Mr. Flood was given a very short amount of time to work through this situation to give a proper evaluation. On the record, Judge Thomas publicly praised the quality of Mr. Flood’s report regarding thoroughness and even handedness. Because of the time limitations and in order to have the document completed by the time of the hearing, Mr. Flood was required to participate in functions that he normally would not. Of most significance, of course, is that ultimately the (family’s) children were placed in the situation that was undoubtedly best for them.
Divorce Coaching
Have you considered divorcing, but don’t want to damage your children, don’t want to devastate your partner, or don’t want to be the parent who busts up the marriage? Are you a couple approaching divorce and want to do it right and well, so you don’t damage each other or your children? You might have read the literature on the negative effects of divorce, but don’t realize that children and adults can survive and adjust to divorce, but they don’t survive and do well in high-conflict divorce. Although you may not have been successful in your marriage, you can be successful in your co-parenting relationship if you do the hard emotional work now, rather than saddling your children with the emotional baggage they will inevitably carry into their relationships if you don’t. A high-conflict adversarial divorce can cost tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention the emotional and relational costs.
Divorce coaching is designed for couples who love their children and themselves more than winning, more than being right, more than being vindicated. It is for courageous and compassionate couples who know that this one journey in this life doesn’t involve being together anymore as lovers, but does involve being good partners in the business of co-parenting. Randy Flood also coaches individuals whose partners are unwilling to participate.
Flood has seen the devastation in high-conflict divorce and can help you navigate the emotional and legal process without succumbing to the pitfalls, the emotional entanglements, the brooding resentments, the seductive protection from loss and pain—fomenting hate. Let him guide you and help you be the best version of yourselves in an emotionally tumultuous and confusing journey from marriage dissolution and renewed identities to positive co-parenting.
Coached Me through a Contentious Divorce
I hired Randy Flood to coach me through a contentious divorce. My wife had been alienating our children from me and restricting access to them while simultaneously hurling unfounded accusations against me. Randy helped me work my way through each of these accusations in a professional way that allowed me to disprove her accusations while still maintaining my privacy and maturity. He gave me new tools to communicate with the courts and the professionals I would be working with. He coordinated with my attorney to present a united front, and solid evidence to the friend of the court that allowed me to be reunited with our children. Since then, as my ex has continued to attempt alienation tactics, Randy has continually been there — through nights and weekends — to give advice, strength and ideas about working through issues with my ex and with our children in an effective way that de-escalates the natural tension of a divorce and the trauma that affects a child that has been away for an extended time from one parent. I could never have done it as well, as quickly, or as effectively without Randy.
Family Court Consultation
Randy Flood has provided consultation to attorneys, judges, and potential litigants involved in family court proceedings, along with court ordered counseling and evaluation. As a family court consultant, Flood has:
- Conducted product reviews (evaluating the work, protocols, ethics and judgment of other professionals involved in their case)
- Provided expert advice on case management and strategy involved in mediation and litigation
- Helped in composing direct and cross examination questions of witnesses and experts
- Functioned as a Custody and Parenting Time Trial Consultant
Flood has expertise accumulated over the many years of providing hundreds of child custody and parenting time evaluations, psychological evaluations, and domestic violence and parental alienation evaluations for the family and circuit courts. His experience as a Parent Coordinator, Parent-Child Reunification Counselor and Counselor for Parents and Children enables him to integrate this knowledge to offer expert insight, guidance, and opinions to attorneys and judges.
Flood can help you understand and explain complex psychological and family systems theories, divorce and co-parenting dynamics, and parent-child contact problems due to alienation or abuse. He understands and helps others discern how sometimes evidence (i.e. children refusing parenting time with alleged bad parent or an act of aggression) can have face validity and provide the courts with good data but other times the data can be specious and misleading to the more enduring truth of what is going on in an individual, a relationship, or family. Flood can assist individuals and attorneys in explaining this and help judges understand so that cases are processed and managed appropriately rather than the court system creating and perpetuating myths and problems.
Comprehensive Psychological Report
I wanted to let you know that I appreciated the comprehensive psychological report filed with the court. Your efforts and the report prepared for my review have placed this case in a posture where, for the first time, the parties are made aware of an impartial view of their situation by an objective examiner. This has presented a framework for the beginning of a resolution of the many problems being experienced by the parties. Hopefully, the biggest beneficiary of your results will be the (family’s) children.
Family Court Expert Testimony
Randy Flood’s expert opinion and observations provide reliable information for judges to render judgments that are more informed regarding the dynamics and nuances of issues facing the court. Flood is approved as an expert in several courts throughout Michigan and has extensive experience in expert testimony. Judges often hear expert testimony from advocates or professionals with expertise in one area. This leads to judges suspecting confirmation bias, thus putting little weight into their expert opinion. Flood is known both for his opinion not being for hire—only his time—and for expertise in sometimes competing ideologies such as domestic violence vs. parental alienation. Consequently, when Flood renders an opinion, judges listen.
He helps judges understand appropriate evaluation and counseling protocols when working with divorcing families as well as insidious parental alienation or domestic violence dynamics. It is erroneous (and can prove detrimental) to assume that judges inherently know about these unique issues and specialized services because when they don’t, their opinions and judgments are compromised. And so, too, can be your parental access, the improvement of your parent-child relationships, or co-parenting alliance. Flood laments how often he has seen courts unwittingly harm individuals, parents, children and/or their relationships when following errant recommendations from counseling professionals or court personnel in pursuit of what they believe is in the best interests of children or a parent-child relationship.
Flood has been accepted as an expert in many courts and has copious experience in the court room testifying on the scope, severity, and typologies of domestic violence, refuse and resist dynamics (RRDs) in parent-child contact problems, parental alienation, parent-child estrangement (from abuse and neglect), sexual addiction, and sexual acting out issues. He also can testify on the appropriate scope, protocols, and ethical practices of specialized evaluations such as custody and parenting time, parenting fitness, and risk assessments as well as provide unique counseling services such as parent coordination, co-parenting counseling, parent-child reunification counseling, batterer intervention, sex addiction offending recovery programs, and other court-related counseling. When judges have good and reliable information, they are more likely to have good and reliable opinions, rulings, and judgments.
Thorough and Spot On
Mr. Randy Flood prepared a custody evaluation for one of my clients. This evaluation was extensive, thorough and spot on. Because I represented that particular client for the following 14 years, I received the opportunity to evaluate Mr. Flood’s predictions and insights, and Mr. Flood’s insights and predictions were proven to be remarkably accurate. Since 2002, I have referred many of my clients to Mr. Flood and the Men’s Resource Center. Mr. Flood’s reports are not always appreciated by all of my clients, but Mr. Flood’s expert opinions are to be reckoned with and widely accepted by judges and other attorneys. I highly recommend Mr. Flood.
Family Court Evaluation and Counseling Services
- Custody and Parenting-time Evaluations: Psychological testing, collateral data, and assessment interviews are carefully used to determine the best interests of the children related to child custody and parenting time factors.
- Parenting Fitness Evaluations: Psychological testing, collateral data and assessment interviews are carefully used to determine the parenting fitness of an individual when allegations of mental health, domestic violence, sexual acting out, child abuse, etc., are lodged in the context of custody and parenting-time disputes.
- Parent-Child Contact Problem Evaluations: Resist/Refuse Dynamics (RRDs) are complicated for courts to understand and manage during high conflict divorce. These evaluations assess RRDs to determine the presence of alienation—RRDs for specious and unwarranted reasons—and/or estrangement—RRDs due to abuse, neglect, and parenting unfitness. Recommendations are made to address and resolve the actual reasons for the RRDs.
- Parenting Coordination and Co-parenting Counseling: The best predictor of children’s adjustment to divorce is a positive co-parenting relationship. Unresolved and chronic co-parenting conflict not only stresses children, it stresses parents and costs significant money in litigation. This is a specialized service for divorced parents who are experiencing unhealthy co-parenting conflict. You will learn new co-parenting skills, how to better communicate, resolve conflict, and get help on decisions you can’t agree upon.
- Parent-Child Reunification Counseling: When parent-child contact problems persist over time, children will display entrenched resist and refuse dynamics. This counseling addresses and heals the parent-child relationship by focusing on the whole family system including the children, favored and rejected parents, and influential step-parents.
Contact us online or call us at (616) 456-1178 for more information or to set up your first session.
The Man Has Integrity
As an attorney who litigates complex divorce cases involving parental alienation and other mental health issues around the country, I have found Randy Flood to be a consummate professional. Parental alienation is complicated for courts to understand and manage during high-conflict divorce. More often than not, it is counter-intuitive and many professionals fail to understand it and most make serious mistakes. Randy’s unique background in domestic violence, abuse and estrangement cases makes him a good candidate to skillfully evaluate and treat cases involving parental alienation and/or abuse. More importantly, the man has integrity and does not fear to speak his truth. That’s what sets him apart.