The Cooperative Parenting Institute 1936A North Druid Hills Road, Atlanta, GA 30319

"I sought out Susan of the Cooperative Parenting Institute (CPI) to help my ex and I resolve issues with our coparenting and with our Parenting Plan (PP). My ex and I have terrible coparenting, and our custody battle was high conflict, but we ended up with a settlement. Parental alienation also occurred. These areas are what CPI's website says that Susan has experience in, so she seemed like a great fit. Well, my ex and I's PP says to use a Parent Coordinator (PC) to resolve issues that we couldn't resolve on our own, but it did not appoint a PC, mention how the PC should be selected, or what to do if one parent isn't satisfied with the PC - so enlisting Susan's help was a proactive and voluntary measure. My first red flag with Susan was the contract she had us sign. I had issues with it and asked if it was even the correct one, and she responded by telling me to just sign it first and she'll look at it later. Okay. Well, we had our intake session, then began having joint sessions with her and my ex, and other issues began to crop up immediately. I had hoped she'd be fair, neutral and unbiased, but she was not. She didn't listen to me, was argumentative, rude, disrespectful, interrupted constantly and kept having false assumptions that she wouldn't let me correct. I became frustrated in just the first joint session, and I told her that I was, and that I felt like I wasn't being heard. I also told her that I have a speech impediment (stutter) and issues with processing speech. She didn't take this seriously and even seemed to capitalize on it, stirring me up and trying to get me to make agreements with my ex under duress without talking/thinking through it and without fully voicing my concerns. There was interest in just the quantity of agreements vs. the quality. She even promoted more conflict between my ex and I by suggesting changes to our PP that we didn't bring up, even a change that was part of the basis of my ex and I even deciding to settle our case and would've landed us in court if it was changed. After our second, extremely stressful joint session, I expressed my concerns about Susan to my ex, who apparently had backchannel communication with her. My ex didn't respond, but Susan did, and instead of asking for an explanation Susan asked me to refer to our contract that appointed her and which she *said* stated that I must have an individual meeting with her before I terminate (i.e. another billable $200 session), but that was incorrect. I was more uncomfortable at this point, and asked Susan to review our contract. She finally had looked at it and admitted it was not even the correct one. It was void and, at this point, I asked for a termination of her services as there was no obligation to continue, and her being consistently careless, unfair, and biased was not something I liked. Then, she warned that she would write an unfair Termination Memo if I didn't comply with her. There were emails back and forth, which she charged for and resulted in a final invoice of hundreds more, followed by that Termination Memo for us that was unfair and negative towards me, contained false and inaccurate statements about our sessions, contained false, negative assumptions about me, was positive towards my ex, and belittled my feelings and complaints about her as a PC. Do not use Susan as part of your process. She is not helpful, and is part of the problem and uphill battle that Fathers face when in family court. My ex and I have even more conflict now, which has not been good for our kids, and we have definitely taken a step back."

"I sought out Susan for support with my ex-spouse proactively as I thought it might be helpful. We were not in a legal battle or the court system, but our co-parenting for years had broken down. We thought she would be very balanced and helpful. What we found instead was someone who was seldom prepared, inconsistent, didn’t remember from one week to the next what we had agreed to do, inaccurate, argumentative, didn’t listen, extremely old fashioned with regard to gender roles and responsibilities, and accused me of things that weren’t even close to true. Unless you are desperate with no other options, I would not let this person become a part of your process. We definitely went backwards in our co-parenting and it was far worse on the children when she was involved."

"Susan is very knowledgeable. My family love her and highly recommend her. She is very honest and have a very special way to make us understand our mistakes as a parents and partners. She goes above and beyond to keep the conflict away. She is great teaching how to deal with conflict and how to be self confident. I am bless to know her and to have her as my personal therapist."

"After almost 4 years I'm writing a review. We went and did a handful of sessions with Susan and constructed a parenting plan. My ex- husband and I agree that it was the best thing we ever did. Our parenting plan was meant as a default if we couldn't work things out amongst the two of us, and we still haven't had to resort to it. We keep it about our child as suggested and are better parents as a result. We are better parents because of our handful of sessions here. Highly recommend."