Parents Beyond Conflict

This article describes a parent education program for high‐conflict families in the Multnomah Country Circuit Court, Portland, Oregon. The method emphasized an educational approach teaching conflict resolution skills. This course was rooted in the tenets of cognitive restructuring: if parents think differently about the other parent and their shared task of raising their children, they will feel differently, and they will act differently. The authors beleived many of the difficulties between parents were caused by the negative perception of the other parent created during the spousal relationship. They also believed the key to successful co‐parenting is to reframe these perceptions emphasizing cooperation and joint problem‐solving. Furthermore, they believed as the cooperation and joint problem‐solving improvement would have a positive, reinforcing effect. Finally, the authors believed parents must learn to separate conflict in the spousal role from conflict in the parenting role.