Parental Capacity evaluations are comprehensive evaluations of a parent to help determine parenting strengths, parenting deficits, and potential for abuse and neglect. It answers questions like; Does the parent have an understanding of the developmental capabilities and limitations of their child? Can they provide safe and adequate caregiving? What is the liklihood that the child might be exposed to abuse, neglect or other danger while in the household? What mental health or substance use issues are present in the parent and how do they impact parenting? What is the parents ability to offer empathy, positive reciprocity, attunement, nurturance, and help the child establish healthy boundaries. The evaluation process also includes recommendations for how to remediate any identified deficits or vulnerabilities, in order to help the parent be most successful in their parenting role.
Forensic Services
Psychological Evaluations
Violence Assessments (Domestic Violence, Workplace Violence, School Violence)
Please call 701.297.7540 if you have any questions
Threat Assessments
Please call 701.297.7540 if you have any questions
Competency to Stand Trial
Competence to Stand Trial / Fitness to Proceed evaluations are an examination of the defendant’s present capacity to understand the proceedings against him or her and the capacity to assist in his or her defense. An individual is fit to proceed in North Dakota if they have sufficient present ability to consult with the individual’s counsel with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against them.
General Competencies (Wills, etc)
Please call 701.297.7540 if you have any questions
Criminal Responsibility
Psychological Injuries (abuse / trauma)
Psychological injury refers to psychological conditions (such as depression, anxiety, PTSD etc) that arise following a traumatic event (such as abuse) or physical injury (such as in a car accident). The evaluation seeks to determine if a causal link can be found between the current mental state and the identified event. Examples of Psychological Injury evaluations might be evaluating someone who was abused within their church and are now seeking damages from the church to pay for their counseling, or evaluating someone who was injured in a plane crash where negligence was found on the part of the aircraft company, and they are seeking damages to help pay for medical bills, therapy and other related expenses. A psychological injury evaluation can help determine if there is a likely connection between the event and current functioning, and can help determine the likely treatment recommendations to restore the person to what their functioning level was before the event.
Fitness for Duty and Return to Work
A fitness for duty evaluation helps employers determine if an individual is physically, mentally, or emotionally capable of carrying out the daily tasks associated with their potential job duties. Or for Return to Work evaluations, we help employers determine if individuals who were found to be temporarily not be capable of doing their assigned duties, are now ready to return to their previous position. We have done fitness for duty evaluations on candidates seeking sensitive employment positions within the military and government, police officers, security guards, and for religious professionals in various positions.
Screening for Homeland Security and other sensitive positions
Please call 701.297.7540 if you have any questions
Therapeutic Interventions
Hypersexuality / Internet Porn
- Are you spending more time on the computer, to the detriment of your marriage, family, or career?
- Do you hide from your spouse or partner the amount of time you spend on the computer on sex related sites?
- Have you tried (unsuccessfully) to cut down on the amount of time you spend on sex related Internet sites?
- Have you found yourself searching for more and more “unusual” sites?
- Do you spend more than 11 hours a week on online sexual pursuits?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may have a problem with online sexual compulsion.
Family Reunification in cases such as sexual abuse / neglect, return from foster care, parental alienation etc
Reunification therapy helps to create a new plan for your family system. Reunification Therapy is most likely ordered in complex situation, high conflict cases. Research has shown that the amount of conflict before and during separation is one of the most powerful predictors of mental health problem in children from divorced families, and that children who refuse or resist contact with a parent often go on to suffer many emotional problems as adults. Whenever possible, having a healthy, positive and secure relationship with both parents is the ideal situation for children to thrive. Reunification Therapy (RT) requires a court order which will stipulate the expectation of cooperation by both parents, the courts expectation of treatment goals and interventions, who is responsible for payment of fees, the discretion allowed to the Reunification Specialist to make recommendations in this process etc. Reunification Therapy is one of the most challenging and difficult therapies for many reasons. Common challenges include parents who may be angry with each other, one or both parents and/or the child(ren) may be wary of the reunification process, children often do not want to attend the therapy or the visitations, and parents may feel upset, and like they are not being heard if things are not going in the way they had hoped. In order to ensure that everyone understands and agrees ahead of time how this process will go, we have a very lengthy contract that outlines clearly the role of the custodial parent, the role of the estranged parent, the role of the children, the role of the reunification specialist, and the role of each parents individual therapist. It also covers questions about costs, time lines, etc.
Dr. Stacey Benson
Dr. Jessica Mugge
