Institute for Advanced Professional Learning
2024-2025 Institute: Reimagining Parallel Parenting Moderators
Karen MacDonald, LCSW
Karen MacDonald is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist based in Gorham, Maine. She is dedicated to creating a non-judgmental space for individuals to heal and grow. Her strengths-based practice employs various evidence-based modalities to empower clients, emphasizing that they are the experts of their own lives.
Karen specializes in two areas: working with adolescents facing co-occurring disorders and co-parenting coaching. She has experience in residential settings with teens and young adults who have experienced trauma, using motivational interviewing and authenticity to build therapeutic relationships. Additionally, as a trained mediator, she employs a directive approach in co-parenting coaching, focusing on communication and conflict resolution to help divorced or separated parents establish respectful new relationships.
Karen earned her MSW from the University of Southern Maine School of Social Work.
Karen facilitates the First Step: Foundations in Co-Parenting, the Next Step, ICOPE, and Kids First for Kids! at the Kids First Center.
More about Ms. MacDonald is found at Psychology Today.
Christopher Leddy, Esq.
Christopher Leddy is an attorney with Ainsworth, Thelin & Raftice in South Portland, Maine. Having started his Family Law and Criminal Defense practice with ATR in 2010, Chris is a regular speaker at family law and guardian seminars throughout Maine and teaches classes at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to police cadets. The early years of his legal career were spent in service to the State of Maine as an Assistant District Attorney in Cumberland County, and with the Attorney General’s office in the Child Protective Division. He became a rostered Guardian Ad Litem in 2004 and was appointed to the initial Guardian Ad Litem Review board by the Law Court in 2015.
Attorney Leddy earned his JD from the University of Maine School of Law in 1996 and appears in Maine courts from Bangor to York.
More about Attorney Leddy at the Ainsworth Thelin & Raftice website.
Webinar 4: Thursday, July 31, 2025: 2:00 to 4:00 pm (ET)
Through the Child’s Eyes: A Case for Parallel Parenting
This webinar presented by Gretchen A. Pianka, MD, MPH, FAAP; Andrew Bloom, Esq; and Jasmine Smith, MS, LCPC. The Presenters will explore the impacts of high conflict divorce and separation on children. Children are most seriously impacted by these challenging family situations, and it is important that professionals understand these outcomes. This webinar will highlight the potential ways and strategies that Parallel Parenting can be used as a way to reduce potential negative impacts on children. The presenters will discuss issues related to resilience, child wellbeing, court involvement, and potential intervention strategies to increase the success of parallel parenting plans. Each of the panelists in the webinar will provide a presentation of content related to their expertise and then engage in a discussion on the topic with the moderators to explore the application of ideas to parallel parenting.
$50.00, 2.0 hours CLE; 2.0 hours CPE (pending)
Presenters
Gretchen A. Pianka, MD, MPH, FAAP
Gretchen A. Pianka, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a graduate of Amherst College and a product of the University of Vermont School of Medicine and the University of Virginia Pediatric internship and residency program. She earned her Master’s in Public Health from the University of New England. Dr. Pianka has practiced primary care pediatrics in Maine since 2004, currently caring for immigrants at Greater Portland Health. She is the author of the book Coaching Families for Resilience: how pediatricians can support caregivers and prevent burnout (AAP, 2025) and enjoys sharing the approach that revitalized her love of medicine and promotes access to positive childhood experiences with children, caregivers, medical students, physicians and other professionals. She lives in coastal Maine with her family.
Andrew P. T. Bloom, Esq.
Andrew has been in practice with his wife Sheila A. Cook, Esq. since 2003, concentrating in the areas of Adoption, Guardian ad litem in Protective Custody and Family Matters cases, and Juvenile defense. Prior to this, Andrew spent five years as an Assistant District Attorney with the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office prosecuting felonies and managing Project Exodus, Maine’s first treatment court program. After leaving the DA’s office, Andrew was an associate with the Boulos Law Firm in Saco, concentrating in criminal defense. Andrew is a graduate of Wesleyan, University and Maine Law, and has presented at CLE’s on Juvenile defense, Guardian ad litem practice, and Adoptions. Andrew serves on the Family Rules Advisory Committee and the Maine Guardian ad litem Review Board.
Jasmine Smith, MS, LCPC
Jasmine Smith is a Licensed Professional Counselor with over 12 years of experience. Jasmine specializes in treating children who are experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, or are adjusting to a big life change. Jasmine also works with children and teens who have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. She treats patients between the ages of 2-14 and their families utilizing Child Centered Play Therapy, Adlerian Play Therapy, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Somatic Therapy and Child and Parent Psychotherapy. Jasmine has a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from University of Southern Maine and a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from University of Maine at Presque Isle. She has extensive experience counseling children, coaching parents, facilitating parenting groups, and offering trainings and consultation to families and teachers. Jasmine has spent her clinical career working at Head Start in collaboration with children, their families, and their teams of teachers and providers.
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