My experience with Moxie has been really great. I appreciate the work they have done for my family.

If anyone with negative reviews on Family Court in Minnesota would like to talk to a Star Tribune reporter on this topic I will provide your name to the reporter. Minnesota Family Court: When a Parent Cannot Afford the Process Required to See Her Child To: Investigative Reporter / Minnesota Star Tribune Subject: Investigative Story Proposal -- Minnesota Mother Unable to See Son After Job Loss and Suspension of Court-Established Reunification Process Dear Investigative Reporter: I am contacting the Minnesota Star Tribune because I believe my experience in Hennepin County Family Court raises serious questions about access to justice, financial barriers to parenting time, and what happens when the court-established process for restoring a parent-child relationship becomes impossible to complete. I am a 66-year-old Minnesota mother who has not seen or spoken with my 12-year-old son, Austen, since June 15, 2025. My son has now been diagnosed with cancer, and I remain unable to see him. I am not asking your newspaper to decide the merits of my custody dispute. I am asking whether Minnesota's family court system has adequate safeguards for situations in which a parent's ability to maintain or restore contact with a child depends upon privately paid professionals whose services become financially inaccessible. How the Situation Developed My former spouse and I originally shared joint legal and physical custody of our son under our 2021 divorce decree. Over time, my parenting time became restricted. In June 2024, the court established supervised parenting time and telephone contact. In April 2025, our Parenting Consultant, Diane Reller, issued a decision suspending those contacts and requiring additional steps, including family therapy and a parenting-capacity assessment, before parenting time could be reevaluated. I recognize that the court and Parenting Consultant cited concerns they believed warranted restrictions. I dispute aspects of the underlying allegations and conclusions, but I understand that those orders remain legally significant. I complied with the family-therapy requirement and participated in sessions with Glorina Fruetel. My final family-therapy session, and the last time I saw or spoke with my son, occurred on June 15, 2025. I Lost My Job in a Reduction in Workforce On May 16, 2025, I lost my employment with Medtronic as part of a reduction in workforce. At age 65, I suddenly faced the challenge of finding new employment while attempting to comply with increasingly expensive family-court requirements. The Parenting Consultant charged $275 per hour, and the parenting-capacity assessment was estimated to cost approximately $2,000. After losing my job, I could no longer afford the ongoing Parenting Consultant expenses. The Parenting Consultant suspended her services because of nonpayment. The family-therapy process subsequently ended. I did not stop participating in family therapy because I no longer wanted a relationship with my son. The process ended after the Parenting Consultant suspended services, and I could no longer afford the private professional services necessary to move forward. I have continued seeking employment and attempting to find financially accessible alternatives. The Court-Established Process Is No Longer Operational This is the central issue I hope your newspaper will investigate. The April 2025 Parenting Consultant decision established a process under which I would complete certain requirements, participate in family therapy, and eventually have my parenting time reevaluated. That process depended upon the involvement of the appointed Parenting Consultant and family therapist. However: The Parenting Consultant suspended services because I could not pay her fees. The family-therapy process ended. The Parenting Consultant's appointment expired on September 26, 2026. No replacement Parenting Consultant has been appointed. The original family therapist is no longer providing the services contemplated by the decision. The parenting-capacity assessment remains financially beyond my means. The restrictions preventing contact with my son remain in effect. The process established for reviewing compliance and determining when contact with my son may resume is no longer operational, yet the restrictions remain. The court has previously declined to modify the requirements, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed an adverse ruling concerning the parenting-capacity assessment. I recognize that those decisions must be considered when evaluating my case. If you would like more information then please contact Michelle_mckenna2002@yahoo.com read more

The Minnesota Parenting Consultant system is corrupt to the core! They use parents against one another to line their pockets while draining families in the process. They implement so called professionals, like Peggy Cortell to interrogate children and use those findings against a parent(s) that hinders their position in the court system. DO NOT USE this broken system to help you in post divorce circumstances ever. If the court orders you to do so. DO not COMPLY and do not pay these crooks one dime! I am from Minnesota so ignore the California address that is posted by my review... I live in Scott County Minnesota! read more

Matthew Shore was my PC for three years. Unfortunately, he was overbooked to the point of neglecting my case consistently over that time. In addition, he's disorganized to a fault, frequently losing materials supplied to him and forgetting details from conversations in his office. Given his hourly rate, one should expect him to retain what's said and shared in meetings. Sadly, that is not the case with Matthew Shore. His absurdly busy schedule and apparent attention-deficit make Matthew Shore a poor choice for entrusting him with decisions related to children. If your lawyer or judge recommends Matthew Shore, run away. read more

Matthew Shore of Moxie, Inc, is a court mediator, but he appears to ignore traumatic situations faced by children and seems biased in his recommendations. Definitely NOT someone I would recommend as a "mediator" who is unbiased, unless unbiased means no matter how bad the situation for the CHILDREN, they will be forced to spend 1/2 their time with a broken parent. read more

This place is a complete joke and a waste of money like everyone has said. And everything said about Michael is true. He is very biased and horribly rude. My partner had a mediation experience with them and they literally did everything but resolve any of the pertinent issues and completely humiliated him. It's a true waste of money. The topics they brought up were uncalled for and invasive and had nothing to do with resolving the actual issue. With this many 1 star reviews, they should get a clue and Michael really should be fired. 1 star is overly generous. Avoid at ALL cost and take your money to actual professionals who have some level of decorum. read more

It has been three weeks since Michael Goldfarb mediated a situation between myself and another party. I have not received any sort of document from the 'notes' he continued to take during the 4-hour block we had reserved. If he had read a prior document my attorney and I had sent to him before mediation, our time would not have been wasted. Secondly, aside from taking our lawyers into an office on two separate occasions for a half hour or more, he spent much of the time speaking. He spoke so much that I couldn't help but think this is what he does in other mediations. If you want to hear someone speak as if his words/knowledge is above all, please, be my guest. I've waited a few weeks to write this post. I started an account due to the lack of professionalism of one of Moxie, Inc's employees. Opinion: Do not use Michael Goldfarb for your mediation needs. read more

I have started a process to enable legal action potentially against Moxie and affiliates with the attorney general's office as well as with the Minnesota social work board. Though we are just one of multiple victims out there, we need anyone whom has experience the corruption and unethical business practices of Moxie to please go out to the following websites to submit your complaints as it will be most effective to have multiple complaints made (strength in numbers) to enable further action. It will only take a few minutes of your time and extremely worthwhile: https://mn.gov/boards/social-work/public/fileacomplaint.jsp https://www.ag.state.mn.us/office/Forms/ConsumerAssistanceRequest.asp Please note that the more complaints they receive that the more strength we will have and the more effective we will be to attain reciprocity. Please feel free to use us a as reference in your complaint (Fernando and Megan Navarro) as well as sending me correspondence on where you are in your submissions and/or if you have in the past submitted a complaint without due results. Fnavarro.meridacorp@gmail.com read more

I could not recommend Matthew less as a parenting consultant. He was horrible to work with, and our child suffered because of his gross negligence. Matthew made it very clear from the moment we signed the contract that he had no interest in meeting anyone involved. He never spoke to our child or knew anything about her. We had glaring issues involving unnecessary and harmful medications being given to our child, and Matthew refused to talk to any of the medical providers or the school to get the full picture. Coparent sent him notes full of lies, and he believed them without verifying anything even though we begged him to follow up/ investigate. We were able to get everything reversed without him because the providers were being lied to as well (we had documentation), but not after our child lost 40% of her body weight in a very short amount of time and suffered physically and emotionally. And we still had to pay Matthew thousands of dollars for refusing to do anything. We were ordered to pay 90% of his fees (hundreds of dollars per email) so of course the other parent (who only pays 10%) sent many unnecessary emails just to play games and rack up our bill. Matthew is only in it for the money and seemed to enjoy this. Our sole purpose for hiring a PC was to evaluate parenting time and make it more equal. Our child was in a dangerous situation with her other parent, and we have a safe and loving home and desperately wanted more time with her. Matthew said repeatedly he had no interest or intention of doing that, and could not give any reason. We asked Matthew reallocate his fees to 50/50 to make things equal and stop the unnecessary spending games, which he also denied. When we asked to terminate the contract to find someone else who would be more reasonable, Matthew refused. Again, he loves the payday. Matthew does not have your child's best interest in mind. read more

Well intending judge sent myself and the other parent to these people for the purpose of trying to repair a parenting relationship that was badly damaged after years of gaslighting, manipulation,and abuse of parental power she was granted several years ago. Met with Kirsten and Peggy for leas than an hour (to the tune of 1000.00), and wound up being further vilified by them and discriminated against. Zero value unless you enjoy being ripped off and hurt worse emotionally. Save your money and find professionals that will do as they claim they will do if these people are suggested, politely move on to fair options. read more

My husband's case was given to Michael Goldfarb. The man did nothing in terms of helping and when asked for clarification he failed to provide a response. He was abusive and unprofessional. And because of the situation at hand between my husband and his ex ,Michael found the situation to be "too difficult " for him and dropped my husband and ex as clients. I would never recommend him for anyone looking for a PC. He was unprofessional and cared more about his own protocols than he did the child in question. read more

Regardless of your situation, If you care about your children, fairness, and getting actual help, solutions for repairing difficult situations, Should an attorney, a Judge or ANYONE recommend working with any of these individuals that are part of "Moxie" , Politely tell them " No Thanks". The only thing that will change if you get suckered into working with Lysne and Cotrell is your heart will be more broken and your bank account will be drained. They should be ashamed of themselves. They have no interest in helping or hearing the entire scenario that brought you in there. Thank you nincompoops for making a bad situation worse. I'd like my thousand dollars back for the less than an hour I wasted . Shame on you both. And an apology would be fitting as well. read more

Moxie Inc. uses methods that harm children. They ignore allegations of abuse and force children to spend time with the abusive parent. Mathew Shore told me that as long as my child wasn't getting punched in the face everything should be fine. Peggy told my child that she should ignore the abuse and only think of happy times. Dr, Lynse had an inappropriate relationship with my ex and worked with an attorney (her friend) to attempt to destroy me financially and remove my child from my care. They were unsuccessful but caused damage both financial and emotional to my family. read more

Moxie harms families and most importantly, children, separating them from good and loving parents without fully investigating the situation. There is no way reviewing some emails is sufficient for this level of decision. No home visits were made and there was minimal virtual or in person contact with involved parties. Michael Goldfarb is disrespectful and condescending. We had gone to Moxie with desperate hopes that we would be given a fair and neutral chance and that someone would help us deal with an ex who knew no limits on harassment and lying to get their way, using children as tools to hurt the other parent. His work was lazy, lacking in critical thinking and slow. He made hasty assumptions and labeled them as fact without talking to relevant involved parties, despite being asked to by an attorney. He willfully chose ignorance. As time went on, it became apparent that the other party, with whom he had aligned at the first meeting, had in fact embellished stories, purposely alienated and manipulated children and outright lied. He did acknowledge the dishonesty in a roundabout way, but made no effort at retribution. He took no responsibility for making decisions based on flimsy stories and sources. I know the universe always returns to balance and the children will realize the injustice that was done to them as they get older, but dealing with Moxie provided them with nothing but more trauma. Once you've signed with Moxie, you give up all power and no judge is likely to disagree with their decision. Beware of Moxie. Don't let them in. They're poison. Our attorney who came on board after we had already signed with them, told us they now always advise against PCs as it gives too much absolute power to one person and they tend to align with one person immediately, and it's usually the first person they talk to. We were the second. read more

Our experience was simply horrible. In a nutshell, our daughter refused to see her father (with good reason in my opinion). Moxie promised her she would not have to do so "until she was ready." Then, the VERY NEXT appointment, they forced her to sit down in a room with her father. Her trust in them was destroyed. She refused to come back. And, of course, I got blamed for it. The whole parenting-consulting system is a money-making scheme for lawyers. Trust the court-appointed people, trust the judges. DO NOT trust a lawyer who says you should agree to use parenting consultants. Oh, and Kristen L. wrote a book called "Bartender's Guide to Family Law" making light of of all of our broken family plight. f. them. read more

Less than impressed. We went to Moxie for Parenting Expeditor services. We walked out of our latest session after 2 1/2 hours at $200/hr) with no progress and no resolution. Our expeditor did not offer any of the typical tools/ground rules that you would expect from a session facilitator and did very little to keep the sessions focused. The other party and I are not able to work together well, which is why we have an expeditor. Moxie told us that they were a strong, experienced neutral party who could help us develop the tools/skills to communicate. They didn't. If you are reading this review and need serious help, keep looking. read more

Lol.....these reviews are great.... but actually it gets worse. I spent 1000s and 1500 up front only to catch this guy In lies after lies.. he is a great coach and the matter of taking advantage of people. He will (they will take your money but worse lie steal and cheat)....well let's just say this,,, you should always record the conversation between you and your parenting time expeditor(set your phone on the table,in your pocket, or grab a recorder)cause this gets good..the reason is because they have meetings with out your knowledge and other rooms (recording to prove that) they already made a decision on what the other party wants and they go for it (you think you are doing the right thing by helping, ,,your not) I recorded micheal goldfarb (because something smelt FISHY. The buzzards were swarming so I recorded. . 2 days later I listened and I brought it to the studio,I could here my ex's parents and her whole family in the room next door (they weren't suppose to be there and I had no idea they were) they cheering and laughing and talking about our decisions.. my ex would get up to use the bathroom and every time her and micheal would say (oh lock and unclock the door behind you) so I played back the recording I was so mad from being blind sided I drove straight down to his office and said micheal you got too here this...I laughed and he said what is it....I said I recorded all of our conversations (cause somethings FISHY) I played him 30 seconds of it,,,, he said Eva that's NOT COOL I said I got ya.... 12 hours later he resigned.....I caught him early on in our relationships telling lies so I recorded him....NOW THAT HE KNOWS dancing with the devil WILL burn him I pray he changes his ways.. but I would never suggest moxie or micheal goldfard. read more

THIS place sucks. Mathew Shore was rude to my 76 year old mother during his home visit. He was rude to her (and to me) during office visits and he is very lucky that I do not practice Voodoo, though I have thought of taking it up just for him. He did not take the views of my personal therapist into account. He blamed me (mother) for messy house when I was working two part time jobs and going to school and looking for a full time job and father/ex was home all day 'looking' for a job. IF you have a court order to work with him - MAKE SURE YOU ARE THE FIRST TO TALK TO HIM - my ex was first and basically everything Mathew wrote was taken from my ex. His entire report was basically written for him by my ex. AVOID HIM or learn Voodoo. read more

I would definitely not recommend Moxie Inc and especially Matthew Shore. He is not someone I would want making decisions about parenting time or custody issues. In our situation, he did not go on facts or the fact that the father was not part of the picture for the first 3 years but rather went on what school district was the best for the child. While I agree a school district is important, it should NEVER be the only reason to pick between A and B and that is exactly what he told us. As the Mom, I am now required to drive over an hour each way to get my daughter to school with a newborn. He is terrible. Doesn't respond to emails consistently, charges over the top fees, and is just not a nice person to work with. THere are much better parental consultants that would've come to a better solution than Matthew. Do your research before going with this one. Seems to favor males also. read more

This place is a joke. It is outrageously priced and you do not get anything resolved. Kirsten Lysne does not respond to emails and does not return phone calls. It took her over well over six months to even give a simple answer. She even went outside of her boundaries of what the court allowed her to decide and explained that she can decide on whatever she wants. My ex was using her to try to control and intimidate me and she allowed it. This place only cares about money not the truth or the wellbeing of your children. Any judge or attorney referring you to this place has done you nothing but a huge disservice. read more

If you are looking for an effective parenting time expeditor, keep looking. I had no choice but to use Moxie as our PTE came with a court order. It's like you know the fish smells bad and has given you a stomach ache, but the court makes you continue buying fish at that grocery store. Before you get stuck like me, go find someone else if you care about your situation. After years of totally unproductive "meetings" and spending hundreds of unnecessary dollars (if not thousands) later, we have yet to make any progress. They may be "trained" to deal with a text book scenario, but most people's lives don't usually resemble anything you'd see in text books. If you believe your situation is unique, keep looking for a more competent service. read more

Horrible experience with Michael Goldfarb! I wish I would have read reviews before agreeing to use him for mediation. Extremely rude and self-important. Clearly loves the sound of his own voice, and uses the same rehearsed speech that I'm sure he uses with each client regardless of the situation. Every line that came out of his mouth was cliché. He has no respect for laws and/or decrees. Did not feel like he cared about anyone involved except for getting paid for the session. Disgusted by the whole experience and amateur service. I'm appalled that someone like that calls himself a mediator and has any degrees. read more

Working with Doctor Lysne is expensive, but worth it when you have a difficult situation you are unable to resolve with your ex-spouse. Obviously it's preferable to resolve the situation yourselves, but in the event you're unable to do so she can help make a judgement in a way that is calm and professional. read more

I was referred to Moxie, Inc. by my lawyer. I was told that the mediators were very good and would help me enforce my divorce decree. The first mediator did not enforce anything, but charged a lot of money. My narcissistic ex was told that nothing could be enforced unless he agreed to it. He agreed to nothing and we paid a lot of money for nothing. I was told that after one year I could bring the school choice to court and was referred by my lawyer to come back to this mediation firm and that we had to do mediation before court. I reluctantly agreed and then was told in mediation that there would be no chance to go to court. Nothing that my lawyer and I discussed for months was discussed in mediation. Within 30 min the whole four hour mediaton was decided and I was not told I would get my money back if I didn't use the four hours up. So I sat for hours and discussed issues that did not matter thinking that it was relevant. Right before noon the mediator and lawyers conferred and decided that we were done. That was after I was belittled by the mediator for even thinking I had a case. I would not recommend this mediation firm as I felt the lawyers and mediator were in cahoots and it was a means to make money, not on what is right for the child. read more

I wish I would have seen these reviews before I agreed to use Moxie and Michael Goldfarb. I agree with the other reviews here, absolutely a horrible experience. I found Micheal Goldfarb to be extremely unprofessional, rude, arrogant, and unsuccessful in finding the truth, although I don't think he wanted to. He somehow made a horrible situation for my children horrible worse. I was shocked time and again at his decisions. What a nightmare. I pray somebody can do something to stop somebody like him from having such power. Do not allow your lawyer to talk you into using him for parenting consulting. Worse mistake I ever made. read more

This was the worst experience of my life. Mr. Goldfarb and his "office clowns" are not only over paid but are extremely rude. Mr. Goldfarb has a "GOD" complex that is so unbelievable to a normal human being, not sure how someone could love themselves that much. When he told me that he was going to "run my life" for the next two years, I just wanted to get up and run out of his office. His methods were ridiculous and his rates were even worse. When he interviewed my children, they came out of the office crying and it was like he threatened them, what the heck? The court system in Minnesota is awful and picks sides and has little to no common ground, let alone resolution. In fact there was no resolution at all and he refunded my ex husband money that should have been split, when i inquired about the bill, i was hung up on by "claire" in his office and told not to call back. Glad to be done with their nonsense and his over priced services, shame on Minnesota court system to put someone so incredibly over priced in place. The judges are horrible, especially judge Janish. Glad to be done with this nightmare, and cheating spouse! read more

I HIGHLY second the notion on one of the worst experience's of my life. Mr.Shore is too part of the "clown-hood" from above mentioned reviews. The Moxie team are not only over paid but are extremely rude, unprofessional and do not following any sort of statutory guidelines when assisting families or what is in the "best interest of the children rules". Mr. Shore made important decisions based on who he "liked" better when a particular decision was made and when my Attorney confronted him he stated "I figured it would go to mediation anyways" he offered up no logic, facts or no reasoning and wasted thousands of dollars $$ in court and lawyer fee's. In addition now my child is having issues and Mr. Shore was wrong in his decision making process all along and the situation that he decided simply because he liked the other parent "best" and made a long term decision for our child was a joke. My ex was such a convincer to Mr. Shore that he was the stable one and Mr. Shore believed almost everything this guy said. The contract expired thank god, and a just a few months later the situation has changed drastically on this man. Mr. Shore made a major decision NOW it's really affecting our child, tons of time, thousands of $$ WASTED Thanks TO Mr. Shore. He really needs to look at history not at simply who he like's best. This entire process and working with him was horrible!! Its going to take alot of time to untangle the damage that he has already caused this ridiculous situation. I would not waste a dime on this group if you are mandated by the court to go here I would demand another place IMMEDIATELY. read more

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT use Moxie Incorporated for your divorce/counceling needs. Moxie Inc. is all about the money, they do not give a damn about the people or the children involved. They never answer the phone and rarely return phone calls. If they do return a call, it is at their convenience. When asked to write a report for court, they DID NOT tell the whole story. They candy coated everything to make it look like all was going well, when in fact it was quite the opposite. There solution is to order more counciling, which only benefits Moxie. Like I said earlier, it is "all about the money" at $250.00 per hour. They have yet to bill our insurance company for services rendered and we are owed a credit from Moxie Inc. We have made several phone calls to request our credit. Not only have we not recieved it, but we were told "the check is in the mail". Which is very illegal to say, if it is not true. Well guess what people, the check WAS NOT in the mail. So we are still fighting to our money that Moxie owes to us. Please take heed and be warned about Moxie Inc. It is supposed to be about what is in the best interest of the child/children and parents. But when you choose Moxie Inc. It is all about Moxie and nothing else. Buyer beware. read more