Daniel J. Hynan, Ph.D., ABAP has been in full-time practice as a clinical psychologist for over 30 years. Since the early 1990s, he has focused much of his practice on conducting evaluations of the allocation of parental responsibilities (child custody), including parenting time, decision-making, relocation (move away), and other parenting matters. Throughout the multiple hundreds of evaluations that he has conducted, he has always had a goal of working to shed light on what is in children’s best interest.
An important aspect of his work in this area has been his writing and research to strengthen the scientific foundations of child custody evaluations and integrate them with the most productive principles gained from professional practice. His book, Child Custody Evaluation: New Theoretical Applications and Research (2014, Charles C. Thomas Publishers), has helped to advance the custody evaluation field in a number of important ways. He has published a number of leading articles specifically on child custody evaluation, such as the first ones on interviewing children, parent-child observations, and child physical health and safety. He has published numerous articles on psychological testing in child custody evaluation, including ones focused on gender fairness. That test subsequently adopted a gender-neutral scoring system.
Dr. Hynan has practiced psychotherapy throughout his entire professional career. He regularly carries out individual, marital and family therapy.
His presentation on Parenting Plans at the 2017 AFCC Regional Conference attracted an unusually large audience, and afterward, there was considerable acclaim, such as “terrific” and “my favorite of the conference.”