Separating parents – getting help about a partial agreement?
A separating couple with eight children found parenting arrangements difficult to agree on. The mother initiated a meeting with the Better Place Australia professional family dispute resolution (FDR) service to help with the separating process. The FDR practitioner, Eliza, met with the mum first to complete an intake assessment. After assessing that it was appropriate to move forward with mediation, Eliza then invited the dad to engage in mediation at the next session.
Eliza considered the format that would work best for the parents to give them the biggest chance of reaching an agreement. The difficulty was working with a family with 8 children, aged from 12 months to over 18 years of age.
Eliza shared how the parents needed to think about where each of their children were at in their development stage and the type of arrangement they’d be able to cope with. Eliza advised them on where the focus should be in order to reach an agreement.
“What I said to my clients was it’s easy to go down a rabbit hole where we get stuck talking about the past when we really need to look forward and try and make arrangements for the future”, said Eliza.
The parents were only able to reach a partial agreement on the child arrangements, so Eliza initiated a strategy which she felt may help them reach a full agreement.
The outcome was very positive.
Below, you can listen to a podcast of the full story and the outcome, and also watch Eliza share a snapshot of the story in our case study video.
For information about Better Place Australia’s Family Dispute Resolution service, and how we can help, click here.
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Better Place Australia family dispute resolution service
The mission of Better Place Australia is to empower people to become more resilient, enjoy healthier relationships and support them through challenging times. When it comes to separating smarter, Better Place Australia family dispute resolution service may be the mediation you need. For help, contact us today.
