Joy’s Way services are uniquely designed to help families when courts and professionals come to view the parent/child relationship as beyond repair. Children who reject a parent after a separation or dissolution, or who come to refuse or resist contact with a parent after a long separation, or whose contact with a parent is characterized by either extreme withdrawal or extreme resistance, represent one of the greatest challenges facing courts and the professionals who support them. Early intervention is critical. The reunification plan is referred to the courts for any required orders.

 

When couples seek to save their marriage, some will attend a weekend marriage retreat. 4-day reunification “retreats” are of the same principle to jump start the parent-child relationship. It is a highly specialized psycho-educational model and, if needed, therapy.  A specialized team of local aftercare and maintenance therapists support the family post-reunification. The specialized programs have an 82-98% long-term success rate. The current orders for “office” reunification therapy (ORT) conducted approximately 4 hours a month, over the course of 5-24 months, have no evidenced-based published success rates. ORT can actually cause further harm and stress in certain cases, where there is high conflict between parents.

 

The first step of the process is to evaluate the history of the family dynamics.  When children grow up with mean-spirited parenting examples, the learned parenting pattern can be repeated in the next generation. Next, we identify and address barriers to prior reunification attempts. Finally, an appropriate intervention plan is created based on the needs of children and within the financial means of the family. Joy helps to raise donations for qualifying families from generous foundations and philanthropists.