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What are introductory visits? · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Family Law Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk
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  Stangy of Stangy Lawfirm PC. Stangy Law Firm is a
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  multi state family law firm. Now here's your host, Kirk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is what our introductory visits? And this episode
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  today is based on an article on our blog Famallawheadquarters
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  dot com dated November twentieth, twenty twenty five, and the
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  title of that article is an explanation of introductory visits.
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  So as a follow up to the episode today, going
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  over to familaw headquarters dot com and read this article
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  from more information on this topic. But let's go ahead
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  and jump on in introductory visits can be a part
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  of some Chawcussey cases. Lots of individuals have never heard
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  the concept of introductory visits. Sometimes introductory visits can be
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  called therapy visits would be another term that can oftentimes
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  be used for them. But the reality is in some
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  child cussing cases. Now, this could be a divorce, could
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  be a paternity case. It could be a motion to modify.
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  I mean, the possibilities are a little bit broad, but
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  it's a child custody case and versus just jumping to
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  a parenting plan, which is the final parenting plan. In
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  some cases, the parenting plan might have introductory visits in them,
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  and in some cases the introductory visits might be part
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  of an interim order while the case is still pending
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  and it's before there's a final resolution on the case itself. Okay,
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  And so look, in some cases, maybe a parent has
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  been away from the children's lives for a period of time. Okay.
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  It could be that they were a way all together.
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  It could be that they were just a way for
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  the most part. Sometimes the absence might not even be voluntary, Okay.
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  It could be a situation where one parent had the
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  child or the children and they were keeping the children
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  away from the other parent. Certainly, in some cases it
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  could be more voluntary as well, where maybe one parent
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  was just away. You know, they could have been away traveling,
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  they could be in the military service, they could simply
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  be out of state, out of country. I mean, the
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  possibilities are really quite endless. But take these cases where
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  the parent who's been away again, it could be voluntary,
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  it might not be voluntary at all. They want to
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  be back in the lives of their children or their child. Right,
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  So what can happen in a lot of cases is
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  these introductory visits get set up. And again these could
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  be called therapeutic visits as well, So their introductory therapeutic
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  visits where the children or the child is being slowly
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  reintroduced to the parent. Okay, And this can look different
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  based on the facts of the case. Okay. In some cases,
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  the introductory visits could be relatively quick, it could be
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  relatively fast. It could be a situation where maybe the
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  parent wasn't a way that long, but in some cases,
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  maybe it was a long time. In some cases, maybe
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  the child is an infant or a baby or a
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  toddler and they've never really had regular contact with one
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  of their parents. So what could happen in some of
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  these cases. And again this is just sort of a
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  general scenario. But this could look different in different cases
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  for sure, and certainly based on how well adjusted the
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  children or the child is and whether or not they
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  have special needs or don't have special needs. This could
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  make a big difference in terms of how this looks
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  as well. But in theory or just to give you
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  sort of a snapshot of what could happen in a
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  case with introductory visits, maybe they start out being supervised
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  for maybe an hour or two, and maybe they're supervised
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  at the courthouse by a court supervisor. Maybe it's a
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  social worker who does this. Maybe it's the other parent
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  or a relative, or a trusted friend or family member.
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  In some cases, there could even be paid supervisors out there,
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  and a lot of jurisdictions there's individuals who maybe used
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  to work for protective services or family services, or maybe
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  they're social workers and they get paid to supervise visits. Okay,
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  So let's say for a period of time the visits
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  are supervised, and then after several or many supervised visits,
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  and maybe this progresses to unsupervised visits for a period
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  of several hours. Let's say, okay, and maybe this goes
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  on for a period of time, and again the length
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  of time can vary. And then let's say this then
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  later jumps to all day visits from like maybe nine
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  am to five pm, so longer visits. Okay, So let's
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  say then these go on for a long period of
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  time and they're going pretty well. Then maybe this ship
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  to overnight visits after a period of time, and again
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  it could be overnights for one night, it could then
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  turn it overnights for the weekend, and then if these
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  continue to go well or over a period of time,
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  then maybe you start to get to a place where
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  you get to the final parenting plan where maybe it's
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  a situation where it's just regular unsupervised visits. And this
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  could look a lot of different ways, from every other
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  weekend type schedules to fifty to fifty cussy schedule or
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  something like that. And again, these are introductory visits. They're
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  taking place over a period of time. And the idea
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  behind this is let's get the child or the children
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  familiar or refamiliarized with their parent, and let's get the
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  parent refamiliarized or familiarized with their child, and let's let
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  them develop this relationship in this bond. And then that way,
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  it's not a situation where the child or the children
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  or just toss to the other parent who hasn't had
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  a lot of interaction and time with their child their
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  children for a period of time, and then it's a
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  situation where maybe things don't go well. Okay, So again
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  these are introductory visits. In a lot of ways, people
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  would call these therapeutic visits. And you say, well, why
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  why the term therapeutic visits? What's the deal with the
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  use of that term. Well, again, the idea is that
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  the child or the children and the parent are slowly
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  getting reacclimated. So it's therapeutic, right, They're developing that bond,
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  They're developing a familiarity with each other, they learn, you know,
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  what each other like, what they don't like, how they
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  react to situations, how they don't react to situations. Okay,
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  so it's it's therapeutic if you will, in terms of
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  slowly building that relationship back together. Okay, so these are
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  introductory or therapeutic visits. Now, look, in some scenarios, maybe
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  an individual doesn't want the visits to be introductory or therapeutic.
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  Maybe they want the visits to simply go to regular visits,
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  visits that they would deem to be normal visits or
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  what they're ultimately seeking. So maybe they just want overnights
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  right away, or maybe they just want fifty to fifty
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  right away. Maybe they're frustrated at the idea of introductory visits.
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  And so let's say an individual is frustrated and they
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  don't want introductory visits. They just want the final parenty plan,
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  the final cussy schedule, if you will. So what to
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  make of that? Well, look, while these sentiments can make sense,
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  and certainly, you know a parent, you know, is going
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  to want to spend as much time with their child
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  or children as possible and as quickly as possible, the
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  issue is really this is, in most of these cases,
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  there's a guardian at light them who's appointed to represent
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  the interests of the children or the child. And if
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  the guardian at light them, or maybe even the judge
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  wants these introductory visits or they want these therapeutic visits,
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  then typically a party really needs to do these and
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  they really need to cooperate and they need to understand,
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  you know, if they do these visits and these visits go, well,
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  they're going to get where they want to be in
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  most cases. But if they won't do the introductory visits,
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  if it's kind of all or nothing, then that can
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  definitely be really counterproductive. So to the parents out there,
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  if you've been away from your child for a period
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  of time again voluntarily, voluntarily, you name it, it's important
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  to be patient, go into these introductory visits with the
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  proper attitude, the proper long term perspective, and then understand
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  that ultimately, if these visits go well, a person is
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  going to end up where they want to be in
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  most instances, Okay, A retort that some individuals have is, well,
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  what if the visits don't go great? What if they
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  don't go well? Is it possible that I could do
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  these introductory visits and they don't go well and then
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  I don't end up with a bunch of time with
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  my with my children or my child. I think the
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  response to that is, yeah, theory, that's possible. But from
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  my advantage point, that's typically not the case. So long
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  as the parent comes into the visits, they're calm, they're cool, collected,
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  they're patient, they're slowly developing that bond. They're even keeled, right,
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  they're not reactive, they're not trying to force things, they're
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  not trying to push things. They're letting the visits happen.
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  They're letting the relationships slowly build. Then things are typically
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  going to be okay. From my vantage point, where these
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  visits can go south is where a parent is impatient,
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  they're pushing things, right, Maybe they're trying to force hugs,
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  force interactions, and maybe the child just doesn't feel comfortable
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  doing at that point in time. And so you know,
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  forcing things can cause these visits to go bad. But
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  typically if a parent comes in, they're loving, they're caring,
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  they're patient, they're kind, they're not forcing things. They're allowing
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  things to happen, they're allowing their relationship to build, and
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  they're trusting that everything's going to work out in the end.
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  That's when these visits typically end up going very well. Okay,
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  So again, introductory visits very common in divorce and family
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  law cases where parents been away either voluntarily or not voluntary,
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  and maybe they were kept away even and maybe what
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  was done was wrong. Okay, but in these kinds of cases,
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  introductory visits very common. It's something courts and guardian liems
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  often like to do. So I wanted to cover this
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  topic because I'm sure it's a situation that a lot
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  of listeners are maybe going through, or maybe they've gone
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  through in the past, and they can kind of mirror
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  what I'm saying and say, yeah, I've been there, done that,
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  or I know somebody else who's had to go through
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  introductory visits. So I thought this was a very important
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  topic to cover, and one we hadn't covered before, all right,
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  so again, as a follow up to the episode today,
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  going over to familaw Headquarters dot com read the article
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  dated November twentieth, two twenty five. The title of the
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  article is an explanation of introductory visits, So if you
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  go over there and read that, that'll give you more
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  information on this topic. But thanks for tuning in today,
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  stay tuned. Our next episode of FAMA Law Talk coming up.
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  Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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