Deborah (Deb) Henson, MSW, JD, LL.M., is a lawyer and licensed clinical social worker with more than 25 years professional experience. Through her offices in New Orleans, Louisiana – Law Office of Deborah M. Henson, LLC and Deborah M. Henson, MSW, LCSW – Deb provides a unique range of legal services, psychotherapy, divorce services, consultation, and training for lawyers and mental health professionals.
Legal Services:
Deb’s law practice includes disciplinary (ethics) consultation and representation for lawyers and mental health professionals who receive complaints concerning their ethical conduct; reinstatements from suspensions or disability; appellate practice for clients and to assist other attorneys as appellate co-counsel or to provide brief-writing services; ethical risk consultation for lawyers and mental health professionals to avoid ethics/licensing board complaints; juvenile advocacy and boarding school placement; and adoptions (agency, private, and international). Deb is also a family mediator.
Clinical/Psychotherapy Services:
Deb provides psychotherapy to adults and adolescents in her New Orleans private practice. She specializes in treatment for individuals who are seeking insight-oriented change involving relationships (e.g., couples therapy, family therapy, parent-teen relationships). Deb also works with persons who suffer from childhood trauma that is causing depression, anxiety, and underachieving.
Divorce Services:
Deb offers co-parenting services for divorcing or divorced parents who want to prioritize their children's needs for healthy relationships with each parent. Deb's focus with the parent facilitation/coordination is to help the parents develop a post-divorce, co-parenting relationship based on the mutual goal of wanting what is best for their children's self-esteem and happiness. Toward that end, Deb always brings to the co-parenting work the voice and needs of the children: what is truly best for their lives after their parents' divorce. Deb assists with co-parenting when parents voluntarily choose the more amicable approach for child custody/visitation, or when a court has ordered them into parent facilitation or coordination of the child custody and visitation issues.
Training, Lecturing, Consulting:
Deb lectures in Louisiana and around the country on issues involving the interface of law and clinical practice – for example: mental health law, ethics, due process rights for clinicians and lawyers facing disciplinary charges. Deb is available to collaborate with lawyers and their clients defending therapist malpractice; she has served as an expert witness with both legal and mental health ethics matters. Deb trains staff in clinical agencies to prepare them for litigation involvement and consults with clinicians around the country who are involved in legal proceedings of all types, including disciplinary matters. For more details about Deb's training servcies see her Beyond Ethics website.