Custody Evaluation during Divorce

What is the Custody Evaluation Process? The whole process takes several weeks before a custody determination or Parenting Plan is done. The Custody Evaluator interviews the parents and children separately. The Custody Evaluator may request that you bring to your first meeting, a history of your marriage, specifics on children, and if there was infidelity or abuse. She is not a therapist and this is not the time to spill your deep, dark secrets. All of you will undergo extensive personality testing, including the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index).

Do answer these questions honestly and not how you think the Custody Evaluator would want you to. My friend Jerry’s friend administers this MMPI and he took this test as an experiment. First go around, Jerry answered how he thought his friend would like it and what would make him appear great. Then the second time, Jerry did the MMPI honestly, with how he perceived himself. What a difference between the two. The test administrator told Jerry that he got very low marks on the first test. When he answered exactly how he felt, he aced it and was rated a happy, stable person.

When I took the test the thing that helped me to be seen as a “happy person” is that I did my testing outside in a lovely courtyard. The birds were singing, flowers blooming, so I was in a calm state taking these battery of tests. See if you could take your tests outside of the office with nature around you. Do meditate, watch a comedy, or whatever it takes to get you in a calm, centered state before doing each test. The results of these tests help determine shared time in custody, so do not do them in a panic. You may be asked to say what the Rorschach Inkblot pictures seem like to you. If one conjures up several images, do pick the happier one, the circus over a crime scene. Other tests are to draw a picture with each short paragraph, or tell a story around a picture shown. Again pick the more positive ideas for these tests, no blood-sucking zombies, please. A psychologist advises people to think of a happy scenario for each of these stories and drawings. The dos and don’ts of custody evaluation     Please read more…http://divorcedmoms.com/articles/the-dos-and-donts-of-custody-evaluation-in-divorce