Welcome back for the next journey of The Family Express Podcast with Kathryn de Bruin and Ronda Evans. Listen along today as our guest Berenice Leon-Fonseca from San Diego, California shares her experience in working with families going through high conflict divorce cases using a family systems perspective. Our conversation focuses on the process in the initial stage of assessment and alliance building. All Aboard !

1:32 Berenice tells us the path she took to get to this destination.

5:19 Parental buy-in starts with a therapist who believes that the co-parenting relationship needs to be the focus.

6:14 Building a co-parenting relationship starts with the intake call.

7:20 The miracle question in the intake call

11:50 In the intake call, building alliance in these families means emphasizing to the parents that they have a voice with you as the family therapist

16:04 The first session is a parent-only session

20:00 To guide the treatment plan, Berenice will follow a court order including how much to involve a parent or whether or not to reach out to a parent

23:00 Getting access to the family system will be slower and the conceptualization will be slower, but it will get the family farther and faster.

23:50 Berenice tells us about a real life experience in which slowing down and leaning in to a parents’ experience can reveal so much about a family’s struggle including the negative cycle

32:35 Berenice talks about how therapists can equip themselves including facing our own fears and getting support and hope from leaning on others.

Thank you for listening! 

Kathryn is an ICEEFT Certified EFT Trainer. Kathryn and Ronda are both licensed marriage and family therapists, EFT supervisors and therapists, and AAMFT Approved Supervisors.

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You can follow Berenice

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 619-361-1168

Address: 3511 Camino del Rio, S, Ste. 500 San Diego, CA 92108 

Website: heartandhometherapy.com