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  1. #1

    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    How in the world would "patient confidentiality" apply? It was only considered my wife's therapist because she had the better insurance to get the most affordable couples therapy, but we BOTH were at therapy together when the therapist told her what she was doing wrong, then when my wife discounted everything the therapist said and refused to return, it was me who called the therapist (who considered us a joint case for couples counseling) who emphathized with all that I have had to put up with from my wife, and told me her assessment of my wife. End result is we weren't ready for couples therapy since my wife needed to work on her extreme issues first.

    Did you know that very few therapists are willing to tell their patient directly what their mental illness is? Because that risks turning their patients away from them, especially in the case of depression/bipolar/borderline personality disorder (yes we've had several therapists who told me that but not her to her face). In relationships where these mental disorders exist, the partner without the disorder is very much part of the "case" and affected worse than the partner who was diagnosed. Google on "coping with a depressed partner" to see what I mean. It's horrible on everybody especially the child.

    Wouldn't HIPPA go out the window when I am included in the sessions where I am told the problems with my wife right in front of my wife?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    If you're going to try to invoke laws that you do not fully understand, you should at least try to abbreviate them correctly. It's not HIPPA; it's HIPAA.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    The therapist's disclosure to you in the context of joint counseling is different from the therapist's disclosure to a court in the context of custody proceedings. I'm skeptical that a treating therapist is going to want to get involved in a custody dispute. You cannot make a therapist testify as an expert (i.e., give opinion evidence), your wife has privacy rights that a court will respect, and if you cap that off with the therapist not wanting to be involved in the litigation you're going to be complicating your case by trying to force that approach.

    What is more common in the context of a custody case is to ask the court to order a neutral psychological examination of the parties, in relation to parenting. The neutral expert can perform or review appropriate tests, interview the parties, potentially interview new partners who are involved with the parties, potentially interview the children, potentially prepare a report for the court, or testify at a hearing. It costs money, of course.

  4. #4

    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    Ok so when we demand a psychological examination of my wife... does that automatically include one of me too? (I can understand if so, but my mental health has never been questioned, while she acknowledges extreme depression)

    Who pays for her examination? Does the responsible party depend on if the evaluation revealed bad mental health on her part?

  5. #5
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    A court-ordered evaluation would include you. The manner in which the evaluator would be paid will depend upon the circumstances. When the parties are relatively evenly situated, financially, the cost is typically split.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    Quote Quoting frewer
    View Post
    How in the world would "patient confidentiality" apply? It was only considered my wife's therapist because she had the better insurance to get the most affordable couples therapy, but we BOTH were at therapy together when the therapist told her what she was doing wrong, then when my wife discounted everything the therapist said and refused to return, it was me who called the therapist (who considered us a joint case for couples counseling) who emphathized with all that I have had to put up with from my wife, and told me her assessment of my wife. End result is we weren't ready for couples therapy since my wife needed to work on her extreme issues first.

    Did you know that very few therapists are willing to tell their patient directly what their mental illness is? Because that risks turning their patients away from them, especially in the case of depression/bipolar/borderline personality disorder (yes we've had several therapists who told me that but not her to her face). In relationships where these mental disorders exist, the partner without the disorder is very much part of the "case" and affected worse than the partner who was diagnosed. Google on "coping with a depressed partner" to see what I mean. It's horrible on everybody especially the child.

    Wouldn't HIPPA go out the window when I am included in the sessions where I am told the problems with my wife right in front of my wife?
    Please answer the question. And please rid yourself of the notion that depressed and/or bipolar patients cannot be the custodial parent.

  7. #7

    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    @Dogmatic, the current schedule is we both live together, but I spend far more time watching our daughter while she hides away and sleeps and deals with her depression (when she has the frequent episodes). Of course I fear she may try to change that pattern when this goes to court. I also fear she may try to fake her way through the test in order to pass the test if custody depended on it. Which is why past therapists and mutual friends (who are familiar with her issues) may be more accurate than an evaluation she might be able to fake her way through.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    Quote Quoting frewer
    View Post
    @Dogmatic, the current schedule is we both live together, but I spend far more time watching our daughter while she hides away and sleeps and deals with her depression (when she has the frequent episodes). Of course I fear she may try to change that pattern when this goes to court. I also fear she may try to fake her way through the test in order to pass the test if custody depended on it. Which is why past therapists and mutual friends (who are familiar with her issues) may be more accurate than an evaluation she might be able to fake her way through.

    You believe that she's sophisticated enough to fool an impartial evaluator ... but she can't fool her friends? You do see how that looks, yes?

    Regardless, here's the deal.

    EVEN IF she has a diagnosis, this doesn't equate to you being the more suitable candidate for primary.

    Do you work? Does she work? Where is the child during work?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
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    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    If you are working and mom is a stay at home, there is a good chance that shortly after divorce is filed, the judge will issue temporary orders naming mom as the custodial parent and you relegated to a standard visitation schedule and paying child support.

    Mom's therapist is not going to do you any favors against the interest of her client, will require a subpoena to testify, and as an expert witness has a right to collect in the ballpark of $130/hr from you to testify in court. It is not hard for a therapist to waffle, and play nicer for mom's attorney than yours. Which could end up doing the opposite of what you intended.

    If there are psychological issues that need to be properly addressed, your case may dictate a need for a court ordered psychological evaluation, which can be requested by either party. This is an impartial evaluation by a non-retained expert. Most often a licensed psychologist who is a PhD, which in turn will run a tab from $6K on up. Costs typically split by parties. It is an evaluation of ALL immediate family members, and you can expect yourself to be evaluated and tested, including ink blot, MMPI, and other testing, including interviews of each family member and phone interviews of collaterals (extended family, friends,...).

    That may also include a home study where the psychologist will visit what may be your presumably separate residences and observe how your child is with each parent.

    The evaluation may cut a little deep with regard to highlighting personality traits you may have minimized or are unaware of, and may place you in a light of having contributed to your wife's depression.

    The evaluation report will make custody recommendations that the court can accept or not. The psychologist will be required to testify if there is any dispute on the evaluation, and cost over $200 per hour, including time spent traveling to and from the hearing.

    If you feel your wife's therapist is a means to slam dunk custody in your favor, you are way off base.

  10. #10

    Default Re: How to Get Mental Health Professional to Testify in Court

    Well we both are working. Do you think I'd let her stay home and mope all day long? Work is the only thing that gets her out of bed. But there are days that go by where she won't see her daughter, where she's too eaten up by depression to come out while I'm getting our daughter ready to go to the babysitter. Usually I have to take her into see her mom just so she'll have a goodbye kiss.

    So is $130 a standard figure that the court came up as compensation for expert testimony?

    That doesnt sound like much to me considering the therapist probably wouldnt spend more than an hour on the stand. The therapist has told me I need to make arrangements to raise the child away from the mother, but I just dont know if he were to be expected to testify, or to at least repeat to the court what he told me, but be assured that he would not end up siding with the mother, after all he's advised me, and I dont think he's the mother's therapist anymore since she refused to return to him after what he told her, and he is only talking to me now.

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