2026 Orientation and Training
September 18, 2026 | Phoenix, AZ
9:00 AM – 4:15 PM
ASU Beus Center for Law and Society
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8:00 AM to 9:00 AM: Sign in Registration
9:00 AM |OPENING REMARKS AND INTRODUCTIONS – LISA DODD, AzAFCC President
Session One | 9:15-10:15 AM
JUDICIAL PANEL DISCUSSION OF LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
The panel will review pending Arizona Legislation affecting Family Law including the passage of HB 2995, commonly referred to as the Alec & Lydia Act. In addition the panel will review other proposals and recent enactments.
PRESENTERS: Judge Amanda Parker, Judge Neil Sherman, Judge Linda Wallace, and Judge Eliza Johnson
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Session 2 | 10:30 AM – 12 NOON
ADDICTION PSYCHIATRY IN THE FAMILY COURT SYSTEM
The presenters will discuss what constitutes addiction, including some of its neurobiological aspects, and review some of the most common substance abuse disorders, including their treatment (medication assisted treatment and other therapies). Drs. Dekker and Faria will explain the process of a substance abuse and mental health evaluation as it pertains to custody cases, and discuss how to appropriately refer to treatment, and in some cases, institute monitoring to ensure abstinence from a drug or substance of choice. They will also discuss drug and alcohol testing, including how to handle false positives.
PRESENTERS: Michael Dekker, D.O and Monica Faria, M.D., FASAM
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12 NOON to 1:00 PM | Lunch Provided by AzAFCC
Session 3 | 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
DID THE TREATMENT WORK?
Did the Domestic Violence or Substance Use Treatment Work?
Courts are increasingly asked to decide not whether a parent completed domestic violence or substance use treatment, but whether it worked — whether the person is safer now than when they walked in. “Completion” (attended the required sessions, finished the 52 weeks) is a process measure, not proof of change.
This presentation gives judges and attorneys a practical framework for weighing that distinction, organized around three questions that come up repeatedly in post-treatment proceedings:
- Effectiveness vs. completion. What evidence actually shows that DV counseling or SUD treatment produced change — cognitive, behavioral, and sustained over time — and how to tell genuine change apart from compliance performed to satisfy the court.
- Integrated vs. sequenced treatment. When DV and SUD co-occur, when the two should be treated at the same time and when a safety or medical priority must come first — and why substance use (especially alcohol) is one of the strongest modifiable risk factors for violence recurring.
- The dual-role problem. The ethics and reliability concerns when the treating therapist is also asked to opine or evaluate: role conflict, therapeutic allegiance, the limits of the treating clinician’s position to assess validity — and what it means when a “treatment effectiveness” opinion comes from the person who treated the patient.
The session equips the court to evaluate treatment and risk testimony with confidence: to ask the right questions, to understand the limits of a “completed” label, and to weigh a clinician’s opinion on ongoing risk in a way that’s faithful to both the evidence and the law.
PRESENTERS: Michael Dekker, D.O and Monica Faria, M.D., FASAM
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Session 4 | 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
FAMILY COURT, DEPENDENCY, AND DCS: UNDERSTANDING THE CROSS‑COURT LANDSCAPE
This session will explore intersections of Title 8 juvenile court proceedings and Title 25 family court matters, including discussing services available to families before and after a dependency petition is filed. Presenters may discuss access to Department of Child Safety records, differences in court procedures when DCS is involved, and how DCS determines the appropriate level of intervention in response to reports. The session will cover agency interventions and services offered in dependency cases. Participants will gain insight into what mental health professionals and attorneys need to understand about the dependency process and court‑based programs such as Family Treatment Court. The program concludes with a Q&A featuring Superior Court Judges, Juvenile Court Program Administration and DCS Field Operations leadership.
PRESENTERS: Markus Risinger, JD, Carma Umpleby, and Judge Ronee Korbin Steiner, Judge Robert Brooks, and Christi Shelton.
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