The Value of a Multidisciplinary Approach
I am honoured to be able to talk about this crucial topic with Marguerite Picard! Marguerite has devoted her work for many years now to perfecting a team approach to managing family separation in a respectful, pragmatic and professional manner. There is no-one better to talk about how families can benefit from this way of…
“See what you made me do” Insights into Family Violence
Join me and psychologist Ena Shaw to discuss insights regarding family violence in the context of the current best seller “See what you made me do” by Jess Hill. This is an amazing book that gives great insight into the roles of both victim and perpetrator, and how we as professionals working in this area…
The humane approach to assisting separated families.
Separation is a time of chaos for the families that approach us for professional assistance. They seek understanding, information and a clear pathway through this chaos to a place of greater certainty and peace. At this point, a family may need time, therapy and emotional support in order to be able to grapple with…
Dealing with Vicarious Trauma
The experts agree that it is normal to be affected by our work. Where this requires us to engage empathetically on a repeated basis with those who are traumatised, then we must be mindful of our exposure to vicarious trauma. Empathy triggers our mirror neurone network so that we mimic those we are working with.…
The obligations of professionals to promote the common good
The notion of a “Social Contract” is one that has evolved through time in the work of various philosophers-John Stuart Mill, Hobbs, Locke, Rousseau and more recently the work of Rawls. At the recent AFCC Conference, Professor Robinson used this notion to present some fascinating ideas about where we as professionals fit into this “social…
The Danger of the Single Story
Everyone has their own unique narrative. Their upbringing, their beliefs, their life experience, all combine to determine how they look at the world and what their narrative looks like. Intact families can work collaboratively even though each member has a very different narrative, because they are working towards the same goal-the wellbeing of their family.…
The importance of family identity.
In my own extended family I have a brother who is adopted, a cousin who is the result of a donor egg, and a nephew who was born as a result of IVF and a donor embryo. The notion of what constitutes a family has changed radically over the last decades and it is becoming…
Summer Reading- The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Jane’s story revolves around several generations of a farming family. The main characters are the three adult sons, but their parents and children are also an important part of the novel. It is concerned with the death of one of the sons, and the attempt to understand what was happening for each of the characters,…