Working with Families in Legal Settings: a Developmental Perspective

This workshop is about

Do you work in the legal and community service sector with families experiencing separation? Would you like to know more about care arrangements that are developmentally friendly and supportive for children? If yes, come and hear about:

Child Development:

- Ages, stages, brain development and trauma, how children react to parental separation at various stages of child development. What considerations have to be made for court, counselling and for effective support.

Attachment and temperament:

- Attachment and temperament– what it looks like (easier to see temperament than attachment) and why it’s important even for older children. Why we have to help poorly attached children and how we can help them. Good ‘teachers’ are so important along this path.

Parental Alienation:

- What it looks like, how can we recognise when a parent is actively attempting to alienate the other parent. The unstated reasons for asking for help. How not to get sucked into the trap.

After the separation– reducing parental conflict:

- How to recognise parenting styles, how some children keep it going. And finally– reflection on your professional/personal biases.

Guest Presenter:

Pat Woodcock is a Forensic Psychologist, Educational and Developmental Psychologist. Since 1997, Pat has had a private practice and specialises in working with children and their families and their responses to traumatic events, life and parental separation. Pat’s other professional experience includes over 20 years in working in Early Childhood Teaching and Lecturing. Pat is also a Family Consultant with the Family Law Courts.