Background
Dr. Kathy McGraw is the President and CEO of McGraw and Associates, LLC, a mental health, forensic, life coaching, substance abuse, crisis intervention, and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) firm. Dr. McGraw works with children and their families through three programs in the Metropolitan New Orleans, the Bayou Region, and the River Region areas. The three programs are the Collaborative ADR Institute of Louisiana, the Employee Assistance Behavioral Health Institute, and the Institute for Families, Parenting, and Children. She has a PhD and a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Tulane’s School of Social Work. She has a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Maternal and Child Health and Community Health Sciences from Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC), and a Licensed Prevention Professional (LPP).
Dr. McGraw is certified in military / post-combat behavioral health and specializes with deployment and reintegration issues. She is a qualified juvenile, delinquency, family, and custody mediator trained by Loyola Law School’s Mediation Program. She has provided mediation services through numerous programs, including the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Children Advocacy Mediation Project. She is a qualified child custody evaluator and parenting coordinator (PC). She was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to the Louisiana State Law Institute’s Parenting Coordination Committee, and co-wrote the Louisiana statutes for parenting coordination. She was also on the committees, which revised the mediation statutes for domestic and family mediation (L.R.S. 9:334) and juvenile and delinquency mediation (Children Code 439) in Louisiana. She is trained in the collaborative divorce model and has provided services as a child specialist and a coach. She has been honored to be listed in the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Journal titled, “Who’s Who in ADR” numerous times including the years of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Dr. McGraw has facilitated workshops focused on the trauma recovery process for adults, children, and communities after a disaster. She has worked extensively with families, school teachers and counselors, first responders, and community organizers in the areas of conflict and dispute resolution, anger management, relationships, and communication skills needed after life traumas. She has also facilitated several city-wide meetings in New Orleans organized by AmericaSpeaks and the United New Orleans Plan (UNOP) to aid in the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans and the surrounding communities after hurricanes and flooding events. Dr. McGraw wrote and contributed chapters to two books, “A Guide to Getting Vibrant and Lasting Relationships” and “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2.”