ROBIN M. DEUTSCH, PH.D. Dr. Robin Deutsch is a Diplomate in Couple and Family Psychology and Professor of Clinical Psychology at William James College. She was the founder and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at the William James College (www.williamjames.edu/cffc) where she developed the Certificate in Child and Family Forensic Issues. From 1990 until 2012 she was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, most recently as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology.
Dr. Deutsch attended Northwestern University and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also received a Masters Degree in Counseling and Guidance and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. She completed her internship at the Judge Baker Children’s Center and Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School and her postdoctoral fellowship at Judge Baker and Children’s Hospital with a rotation at the Boston Juvenile Court Clinic. Dr. Deutsch was the first Clinical Director of the Norfolk County Juvenile Court Clinic, and for 20 years the Co-Director and Director of Forensic Services of the Children and the Law Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Deutsch has performed a wide variety of forensic evaluations and testified in juvenile, family, district and federal courts involving divorce and visitation disputes, relocation, domestic violence, adoption, alienation, abuse and neglect, posttraumatic stress and personal injury. She provides consultation and expert witness services on boundary violations, ethical issues, child and adolescent development, complex custody issues, and custody and parenting evaluations.
Dr. Deutsch has been involved in leadership roles in multiple organizations and task forces. She currently serves as Chair of the American Psychological Association (APA) working group to Review Scientific Literature Regarding High Conflict Family Relationships with Child Involvement .She was the former President of the AFCC (2008-2009), and the former Chair of the APA Ethics Committee (2007). She served on the AFCC task force that developed Guidelines for Examining Intimate Partner Violence (2016), the American Psychological Association (APA) task force that developed Guidelines for Parenting Coordinators (2011), the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) Task Force that developed Guidelines for Parenting Coordinators (2006), and the AFCC Task force that developed Guidelines for Court Involved Therapists (2010). She served as co-chair of the APA-ABA Working Group on Issues of Alleged Abuse, Neglect and Endangerment, co-chair of the APA-ABA Working group on Psychological and Legal Interventions with Parents, Children, and Families, and co-chair of the AFCC Task Force for Child Custody Consultants (2011). She is a founder of Overcoming Barriers, an organization that provides family-centered services for families in conflict. Dr. Deutsch is a fellow of APA, 2006 recipient of the American Psychological Association Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for Advocacy, the 2017 recipient of the Massachusetts Psychological Association Kenneth D. Herman, Ph.D. J.D. Career Contribution Award, and the 2018 recipient of the AFCC John E. Van Duzer Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Deutsch teaches extensively to judges, lawyers, mediators, and mental health groups in the US, Canada, Europe,and Asia. She continues to pursue her interest in interdisciplinary approaches to difficult family situations and has consulted to the Family courts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Indiana. She has published extensively on issues related to attachment, alienation, co-parenting after divorce, high conflict divorce, parenting plans, and parenting coordination. She is the co-author of 7 Things Your Teenager Won’t Tell You: and How to Talk about Them Anyway (Ballantine, 2005, 2011) and co-editor of Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems: Family-Based Interventions for Resistance, Rejection, Alienation(Oxford, 2016).