Our Team
Sharon Ryan Montgomery, Psy.D.
Sharon Ryan Montgomery, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist with more than 30 years of experience in private practice. Dr. Montgomery maintains both a clinical and forensic practice; providing individual, couples and family therapies, in addition to a myriad of forensic evaluations and interventions. The latter includes Custody/Parenting Evaluations, Risk Assessments, Problem Focused/Brief Assessments, Personal Injury Evaluations, Parenting Coordination, Co-Parenting Therapy, Parent Coaching, Mediation, and Family Interventions in which a child resists contact with a parent.
Dr. Montgomery has taught and lectured extensively, having presented papers at both the National and International Child Abuse Conferences. She has been a frequent presenter for the Institute for Continuing Legal Education of New Jersey, the New Jersey Association for Justice, the Family Court Judges Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey Bar Association, New Jersey Family Law Inns of Court, the New Jersey Judges Annual Retreat and the New Jersey Judicial College. Dr. Montgomery is Past President of the New Jersey Psychological Association, the N.J. Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Morris County Psychological Association, and the Human Services Association of Morris County.
Dr. Montgomery obtained her doctorate in psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. She is a certified provider for New Ways for Families, and holds certifications as a Mediator, Group Psychotherapist and in Collaborative Law. Dr. Montgomery is also a Certified School Psychologist.
Carole Kivett
Carole Kivett has been supporting families in transition since 1990. Her roles have varied and she has been a breastfeeding counselor and attachment parenting leader. As the Program Director at a family camp in Vermont she designed and ran programs for families with adopted children, children with autism and homeschooling families. In 2007 she helped design and create the first Overcoming Barriers' family camp program for families in High Conflict Divorces.
Since that time she has been committed to helping families foster connections where some of those connections have been broken. At our intensives she acts as Hospitality coordinator, supports the children when they are not in session with the clinical team and facilitates logistics for the family and clinical staff. Her role is to provide a comfort net while the family does the hard work needed at these intensive programs.
Marcy Pasternak, PhD
Dr. Marcy Pasternak is a Clinical and Forensic psychologist who practices in Watchung, NJ. She obtained her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and is licensed in NJ, NY and VT. She has an APA Certificate in the Treatment of Alcohol and Other Pscyhoactive Substance Use Disorders. Her practice serves individuals of all ages in both the clinical and forensic arenas, with special interests and areas of expertise in marital/family therapy, divorce therapy, parent coaching, reunification therapy, intensive family interventions for children who resist contact with a parent, and forensic evaluations for custody and parenting time, removal and grandparent visitation , risk assessment, focused evaluations, settlement-based evaluations, and personal injury. She often serves as a parenting coordinator and is also an accredited divorce mediator.
Dr. Pasternak has trained in collaborative law, and has also trained and led groups at the Overcoming Barriers' Family Camp. Dr. Pasternak has served as a psychological expert in numerous counties in NJ, and as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers Medical School. She is a member of a number or professional organizations, and has given numerous workshops and presentations to the mental health and legal communities.