What Parenting Coordination?
Parenting coordination is a structured, child-focused service designed to help divorced or separated parents reduce conflict, improve communication, and make day-to-day parenting decisions more effectively. The goal is not to revisit the past, but to help families move forward in a way that supports children’s stability, emotional well-being, and sense of security.
Parenting coordination is most often used when ongoing disagreements between parents are making it hard to co-parent successfully—even when court orders or parenting agreements are already in place.
Parenting coordination focuses on:
- Reducing ongoing conflict between parents
- Improving communication and clarity
- Helping parents make concrete, workable agreements
- Addressing recurring day-to-day issues that impact children
Common topics addressed in parenting coordination include parenting schedules and transitions, communication expectations and boundaries, school-related issues, and clarifying areas of disagreement or confusion in court orders.
Parenting coordination may be especially helpful when:
- Communication between parents feels tense, reactive, or unproductive
- Small disagreements regularly turn into major conflicts
- Children are caught in the middle of ongoing disputes
- Court orders exist but are hard to follow or interpret
- Families need more support without returning to court repeatedly
The Role of the Parenting Coordinator
The parenting coordinator is a neutral third party. They do not represent either parent and are not an advocate for one side over the other. All recommendations and decisions are guided by one central principle: the child’s best interest.
This means the parenting coordinator focuses on:
- Reducing children’s exposure to conflict
- Supporting consistency and predictability across households
- Encouraging developmentally appropriate expectations
- Helping parents make decisions that prioritize children’s emotional and relational needs
The goal of the parenting coordinator is to assist co-parents with reaching agreements around core issues that impact their children’s wellbeing. However, when authorized by court order, a parenting coordinator may also make limited, binding decisions on specific issues when parents are unable to reach agreement.
How Is Parenting Coordination Different From Parenting Therapy?
Although both services support families, parenting coordination and parenting therapy serve very different roles.
Parenting Coordination:
- Focuses on helping parents make concrete, practical parenting agreements
- Is often court-involved or court-ordered
- Addresses current and future parenting decisions
- May involve decision-making authority if parents cannot reach agreement
- Is not confidential in the same way therapy is
- May include written summaries, recommendations, or decisions that can be shared with the court
Parenting Therapy:
- Is a treatment-based service
- Focuses on learning new parenting approaches and creating longer-term, systemic change
- Often begins because a child or teen is showing challenging behaviors
- Emphasizes psychoeducation, skill-building, and insight
- Therapists make recommendations, but do not make parenting decisions
- Is confidential, with limited legal exceptions
Parenting Coordination at TAP
Providers of parenting coordination services at TAP have extensive training and experience working with children, parents, and high-conflict family systems. Our approach is grounded in evidence-based strategies drawn from child development, behavioral parenting frameworks, and effective conflict-management practices. This means recommendations and decisions are informed by what research shows helps children feel safe, regulated, and supported across households—not by opinion or preference. We understand how stress, emotion, and past events impact both co-parents and children, and we use that knowledge to help families create clear, practical parenting solutions focused on children’s well-being.
Ways to Enter Parenting Coordination Services
Parents may begin parenting coordination at TAP in one of the following ways:
- Court Order: Parenting coordination is ordered by a judge as part of a custody or post-separation case.
- Consent Order or Agreement Between Parents: Both parents agree to parenting coordination and submit a consent order for court approval.
Overview of the Intake Process
The parenting coordination process at TAP generally includes:
- A brief orientation call to explain the role, structure, and expectations of parenting coordination
- Completion of required service agreement, intake forms, releases of information, and review of relevant court orders
- Individual initial meetings with each parent
- Ongoing joint sessions focused on resolving parenting disputes and clarifying expectations
For more information on Parenting Coordination Services, contact 919-237-3321 or email Becca Edwards-Powell at edwards-powell@tapclinicnc.com.