The clinicians at the Park Slope Center for Mental Health, together with other NYIPT candidates,  were transfixed during Dr. Phyllis Cohen’s unique presentation entitled “Dilemmas Related to Abuse and Neglect:  Focus on Healing” on the evening of September 18^th, 2006.  Unlike the typical presentation on mandatory reporting, Dr. Cohen transcended the basics of when clinicians must report and focused on the ramifications of reporting on the therapeutic relationship.  Dr. Cohen addressed the central question in the minds of so many clinicians faced with the need to report: will I be able to continue to work with this family?

Dr. Cohen’s answer was a resounding yes - if the report is made in partnership with the parent(s) rather than as an adversarial act.   While this is no simple feat, Dr. Cohen suggests that, when possible, the clinician discuss with the family not only her obligation to report under the law, but also her role of keeping the family safe from harm, and her desire to support them through this difficult process.  Ideally the parent(s) will participate in making the report, reducing its adversarial nature and increasing the likelihood of a continuing therapeutic alliance. 

Dr. Cohen emphasized that child neglect is often symptomatic of larger environmental and societal problems, including poverty and differing cultural views of appropriate discipline.  In the end, the workshop’s message was that our goal as clinicians can be to maintain our therapeutic relationship with the family despite the need to report and to work with them on repair and healing.

Early in 2007, Dr. Cohen will return to the Park Slope Center to help bring her ideas to life through a series of role plays. No doubt the second part of this workshop will offer those attending new and creative solutions to maintaining the therapeutic alliance in the face of the need to report.

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