Douglas Ballroom
Target Audience: Mental Health Professionals
Presenters: Dr. Christy Kane; Mitch Acton, LCSW
This workshop prepares mental health professionals to navigate the unique ethical and professional risks of working with high-conflict and court-involved families in Utah. Dr. Christy Kane and Mitch Acton, LCSW, will explore how clinicians can become unintentionally drawn into parental conflict, litigation, advocacy, and custody disputes—and how unclear roles, blurred boundaries, and professional “role drift” can increase the risk of licensing complaints.
Participants will learn practical strategies for maintaining clear distinctions between treatment, evaluation, investigation, advocacy, and custody-related roles, while strengthening informed consent, documentation, releases, communication practices, confidentiality, and professional boundaries.
The workshop will also help clinicians recognize attempts by parents, attorneys, or others to draw them into family-system conflict or litigation and provide practical guidance for responding to pressure, subpoenas, grievances, threats of licensing action, and actual board complaints.
The goal is not to teach clinicians to practice defensively, but to help them practice clearly, ethically, confidently, and intentionally—protecting the therapeutic process, the families they serve, and their professional licenses.