Lucy Ridgway, LCSW, JD    

Lucy Ridgway, LCSW, helps divorcing and separating families navigate conflict with compassion and safety. Specializing in cases involving domestic violence and coercive control, she offers trauma-informed therapy, consultation, and training to protect children’s well-being and support survivor healing.   

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Working with Divorced/Separated/Divorcing families: Kayden’s Law, Survivor Insight, and Shifting Clinical Practice 

Saturday | May 2, 2026
9:00 am - 10:30 am 
(1.5 CEs)

Description:

With the recent implementation of Kayden’s Law (Title 15) in California, therapists working with divorcing families are being called to rethink old assumptions. This law prioritizes child safety and mandates domestic violence training for custody evaluators—but its implications ripple out to clinicians, too. This workshop offers MFTs an accessible legal update and a clinical reckoning: how have common therapeutic frames—neutrality, “high-conflict” labels, reunification models—sometimes caused harm when abuse was present? Through survivor video stories and clinical reflection, we’ll explore how institutional betrayal affects children and parents, and how therapists can respond with accountability and integrity. Attendees will leave with trauma-informed, safety-focused tools to apply in their work with separating families, regardless of court involvement.    

Objectives of Presentation:

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Describe the core components of Kayden’s Law (Title 15) and how they affect mental health professionals in family systems work. 
• Identify at least two clinical risks of applying neutrality or reunification models in cases involving coercive control or abuse.  
• Apply trauma-informed, survivor-centered strategies when working with divorcing or separating families where DV is a factor. 
• Assess their own clinical assumptions or biases that may impact safety and trust when working with families affected by domestic violence .