| ABOUT DR. WARSHAK |
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RICHARD A. WARSHAK, PH.D.CURRICULUM VITAE - SUMMARY |
Dr. Richard A. Warshak is a clinical, consulting, and research psychologist in private practice in Dallas, Texas with more than a quarter century of experience. He earned his B.S. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is a Clinical Full Professor of Psychology at the Southwestern Medical Center, and is past president of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. Dr. Warshak serves on the Editorial Board of three professional journals and is an Editorial Reviewer for three other professional journals.
In 1977 Dr. Warshak began a career-long project of examining prevailing and proposed child custody assumptions, presumptions, and practices in the light of logic and scientific data. His research on divorce and stepfamilies, conducted as director of the Texas Custody Research Project and Co-Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Mental Health Stepfamily Project, are cited often in the social science literature and in courtrooms and legislatures throughout the world. At a time when few fathers were awarded child custody, his landmark studies comparing mother-custody and father-custody homes established him as the leading expert on father-custody.
Dr. Warshak consulted at the White House on custody reform and, in addition to his professional publications, he wrote The Custody Revolution (1992, Simon & Schuster) for the general public. This book offers practical advice to parents and professionals dealing with custody decisions and recommended fundamental reforms in custody practices that have since been widely adopted and are now considered mainstream.
Following his work on father custody, Dr. Warshak tackled the issues of joint custody and the primary parent presumption. In the late 1990s he read what he thought was a misrepresentation of divorce research that had been submitted to the California Supreme Court as an amicus brief on the impact of relocation. In response he wrote an article offering a more balanced view of the subject and the prestigious Family Law Quarterly published it. Three years later the California Supreme Court again took on a relocation case and Dr. Warshak authored an amicus brief for this case that was endorsed by leading divorce experts throughout the country. The Warshak brief has been credited with influencing the Court's 6-1 decision.
When prevailing practices restricted young children's overnight contacts to one home, Dr. Warshak wrote Blanket Restrictions which exposed the lack of scientific foundation for the common practice. That article is frequently cited in the professional literature and has helped reform parenting plans for young children.
Dr. Warshak is generally considered one of the world's leading authorities on pathological alienation in children. His book, Divorce Poison: Protecting the Parent-Child Bond From a Vindictive Ex, is the best-selling book on the topic and is considered a classic resource for parents in conflict and the professionals who help them..
Dr. Warshak's project of shining the light of social science on custody assumptions has covered father-custody, joint custody, relocation, overnights, the primary parent presumption, children's role in custody disputes, and alienation. Currently he is extending his project to critically examine the "Approximation Rule," a presumption recently proposed by the prestigious American Law Institute to govern custody disputes.
Dr. Warshak is working on another book to complete his trilogy of books for divorced parents and he is also co-authoring a book on collaborative divorce. What has Dr. Warshak most excited among his current professional activities is developing interventions to help prevent and rapidly reverse severe alienation in children and teenagers, and training therapists to conduct these interventions.
Dr. Warshak maintains an office practice evaluating and treating children, adults, and families, and he consults with attorneys, mental health professionals, and parents in the U.S. and abroad on matters relating to child custody, childhood trauma, and personal injury, and he serves as an expert witness in selected cases.
In addition to his custody work, Dr. Warshak developed the Warshak Parent Questionnaire (now in its second edition; formerly the Inventory for Child and Adolescent Assessment), used by mental health professionals throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia to understand better the psychological problems of the children they treat. It has become a valuable addition to social studies, custody evaluations, sex abuse evaluations, and consultations, and is used by attorneys and mediators to help understand children who are the subjects of litigation.
Dr. Warshak believes in bringing psychological knowledge to the general public and is a regular guest on the television program, Fox4 Good Day Dallas, where he discusses a wide range of topics in psychology. Also, he has appeared on NBC Today, NBC Weekend Today, CBS Early Show, CourtTV, CNN, the ABC Home Show, and National Public Radio and his work has been covered in Time, Parade, Psychology Today, Parents, The London Sunday Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Boston Sunday Globe, Dallas Morning News, Redbook, Men’s Health, Parenting, and Working Mother.