About/Services

Services

Dr. Otis provides services to:

  • Children and adolescents: Ages 5 to 18.
  • Adults.
  • Families and couples.
  • Families going through divorce or divorce modifications.
  • Children estranged from a parent whom they are rejecting.
  • Divorced parents seeking to co-parent more effectively.

Dr. Otis is prepared to:

  • Provide individual therapy for children, adolescents, and adults.
  • Conduct marriage and family therapy.
  • Coach divorced parents regarding post-divorce child and co-parenting issues.
  • Facilitate the Rejected Parents Workshop: An education, coaching, and support group for parents rejected by their children.
  • Provide parent facilitation to divorcing and divorced parents who are having difficulty developing efficient and effective working relationships.
  • Conduct the Divorced Parents Workshop: An education and training program for divorced parents to learn conflict de-escalation skills, to manage post-divorce issues, and to build better working relationships.
  • Facilitate the reconnection of estranged children with the parent they have rejected.
  • Consult with parents and their lawyers to craft parenting plans, to resolve post-divorce modification issues, and to facilitate parent-to-parent and lawyer-to-lawyer collaboration.<
  • Train lawyers and mental health professionals in negotiation.

About Dr. Otis

Education

  • Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Florida: 1979.
  • Residency and Fellowship in Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio: 1977 to 1979.
  • B.S. in Psychology from Union College: 1973.

Licensing

  • Licensed Psychologist in Texas: #2-2147
  • National Health Service Provider in Psychology: #30614
  • National Provider Identification: #1477661981

Practice and Professional experiences

  • Served as Program Director of Child Abuse Services at the Dallas Child Guidance Clinic: 1982 to 1985.
  • Taught classes at the Southwest Family Institute, University of Texas at Dallas, and Southwestern Medical School.
  • Provided individual, group, family, and marital therapy in private practice for over thirty years.
  • Conducted psychological evaluations, therapy, and parent facilitation in over 500 court-ordered cases.
  • Treated a broad range of difficult family law matters, including child abuse, parent-child estrangement, domestic violence, and high-conflict divorced families.
  • Provided evaluation, therapy and consultation services to school district special education departments and Child Protective Services.
  • Served as Secretary, Treasurer and Trustee of the Dallas Psychological Association.

Negotiation training, collaborative law, and parent facilitation

  • Training at the Negotiation Workshop in the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School: 2000.
  • Training at the Collaborative Family Law Interdisciplinary Training from the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas: 2004.
  • Chaired the Mental Health Protocols Committee of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas: 2005 to 2006.
  • Frequent presenter to mental health professionals and lawyers on negotiation, communication training, family education, collaborative law, and conflict disengagement.
  • Published articles on the psychological aspects of collaborative family law.
  • Wrote and produced Barriers to Divorce Resolution, a three scene DVD used to train parents, lawyers, and mental health professionals the elements of negotiation, conflict disengagement, and communication.
  • Created parent workshops, including the Divorced Parents Workshop and the Rejected Parents Workshop to teach divorced parents how to manage parenting plans, negotiate disagreements, build working relationships with ex-spouses, and reconnect to estranged children.