Law & Ethics: What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Divorce
Presented by Stephen Sulmeyer, JD, PhD
Friday, March 6th, 2026
8:45 am - 1:30 pm PT
(Please note start time.)
4 Law & Ethics CEs
On Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Course Description
In California, where over half of all first marriages end in divorce, psychotherapists must understand the factors associated with both successful and poor outcomes for divorcing individuals and their children. In order to adequately support their clients as they go through divorce, psychotherapists must have a basic understanding of the law of divorce and the professional and ethical pitfalls the unwary clinician can fall into.
Divorce has long been seen as a battle fought by adversarial attorneys, often leaving both partners—and especially their children—as casualties. Ample research has explored the emotional and developmental toll of such high-conflict divorces, and clinicians must be conversant with this body of work. Since the rise of divorce mediation in the 1970s, the process of divorce has evolved significantly, creating alternative, less adversarial pathways for divorcing couples, and psychotherapists need to have a solid understanding of these alternative approaches.
This workshop will familiarize clinicians with the relevant laws around divorce and the ethical considerations impacting sharing such information with their clients. The workshop will also share research on both litigated and non-litigated divorce processes, their effects on parents and children, and the various alternatives to traditional litigation.
Participants will explore key risk, resilience, and stabilizing factors associated with different divorce trajectories, as well as ethical considerations around helping high-conflict couples co-parent effectively after separation. Clinicians will leave with tools to support their patients in ways that enhance psychological resilience for themselves and their children.
Educational Goals
This training is intended to help mental health clinicians understand what it takes to get divorced in California, what the basic laws are around child custody, asset division and child and spousal support. The purpose of the training is not for therapists to offer legal advice to their patients, but instead to help therapists be sufficiently knowledgeable and conversant in these topics to be able to adequately understand what their patients are facing and offer appropriate and informed support.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify and explain how to work with at least 3 ethical issues related to working with patients who are contemplating or going through divorce.
- Identify and explain at least 3 legal issues relating to divorce, as well as understand when to appropriately share such information with patients, and when not to.
- Define the scope of practice for therapists working with patients who are contemplating or going through divorce.
- Describe the statistics around minority access to divorce alternatives.
- Offer appropriate support and understanding to patients who are self-represented litigants.
- Identify and navigate key risk, resilience, and stabilizing factors associated with different divorce trajectories.
- Identify and describe interventions available to help high-conflict couples co-parent effectively after separation.
- Describe legal options available to high-conflict couples including for co-parenting after separation.
About Our Speaker
Stephen Sulmeyer, JD, PhD
Stephen Sulmeyer, JD, PhD is a mediator with JAMS in San Francisco and a clinical psychologist working with patients throughout California. As a mediator he specializes in complex and high-conflict disputes in a wide range of subject areas, including family and divorce, probate and elder, family businesses, business/commercial,
intellectual property, employment, discrimination, partnerships, and community matters.
Steve has trained divorce professionals privately and at conferences sponsored by groups such as the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Association of Professional Family Mediators and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, as well as local chapters of these and other organizations. Steve received his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sophia University), in Palo Alto, California, where he taught as a member of the adjunct faculty. He is the co-founder (with Judge Verna Adams) of the Marin Superior Court’s interdisciplinary settlement conference program, in which mental health professionals and lawyers team up to assist judges in settling custody and other cases. He is also the founder and past president of Integrative Mediation Bay Area, a group that teams up mental health professionals and attorneys in a conjoint mediation model in family law and other cases. For further information see Steve’s website, www.sulmeyermediation.com, and his JAMS profile, https://www.jamsadr.com/sulmeyer/.
Location
Zoom Meeting. Requires pre-registration with Zoom using the instructions provided in your RECAMFT confirmation email in order to get your personal Zoom Join Link.
Registration
RSVP here. Please note that once you have RSVP'd for this event, you will receive a link to register for the Zoom Meeting. You must complete this second Zoom-registration step to gain access to the event link.
Registration Fees
1) Licensed RECAMFT Member Attendees - $49
2) Licensed Non-Member Attendees - $69
3) Pre-Licensed Attendees - $20
Training Schedule and Attendance Requirements
Please note, this is a 4-CE training, comprised of four hours of training plus time for RECAMFT announcements during the meeting and breaks. You must be logged on at the beginning of the training at 8:45am, be present during the event (including responding to attendance checks by coming on camera, verbally replying, and/or replying in the chat), and stay logged on for the full duration, to end at 1:30pm, in order to earn the CEs. If your camera is off the entire time, and RECAMFT cannot verify you were physically present at your computer throughout the training, then RECAMFT cannot issue a CE certificate, as we would not be able to show that the BBS requirements for your participation were met.
No On-Demand Option
RECAMFT will not be recording this event, and an on-demand option will not be available for this training. If you are interested in learning from this presenter, please plan to join us for the "live" training on Zoom on March 6th.
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Redwood Empire Chapter CAMFT (Provider #57173) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Redwood Empire Chapter CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.
- Disability Accommodation: To request an accommodation for a disability, please email info@recamft.org.
- Refunds: Refunds may be requested up to 7 days before the event by contacting info@recamft.org. No refunds are given beginning 7 days prior to the event. If a registrant cannot attend the event due to a mandatory evacuation or Public Safety Power Shut-off the day of the event, they can request and receive a refund with verification of address.
- CE Certificate: You must be physically present at your computer and watching and/or listening to the training while logged onto the zoom meeting for the entire presentation, and complete a post test and an evaluation to receive your CE credit certificate. Within a week after the conclusion of this educational event, once RECAMFT has processed attendance, an email with a link to the test and evaluation form will be sent to all participants whose physical presence during the online meeting is verified. Once you complete and submit your evaluation, you will have immediate access and be able to print or save your CE Certificate. This course meets the qualifications for 4.0 hrs of continuing education (CE) credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
- Notice of Recording: Whenever possible, our CE events are recorded or filmed and may appear on our website. Your participation in this event by registering and attending indicates your approval for your likeness to appear in the recording, if any.
- Grievances: Direct grievances to info@recamft.org, and/or the chapter president at recamftpresident@gmail.com.
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