Collaborative Family Law — Victoria, BC

I am very pleased that there is a collaborative family law option in Victoria for couples to consider in deciding just how they will separate. In my role as a divorce coach or a child specialist, my goal is always to assist families to minimize the traumatic impact of separation and maximize its potential for new perspectives, new skills, and personal growth for all concerned. While separation almost always invokes the pain of loss and uncertainty, we can avoid adding to it by perpetuating ideas of families apart as “broken”. There is courage and heart in being able to create a new family structure founded on values of mutual empathy, cooperation, and respectful communication – values which provide security for children whether their parents live together or not. My work is always about assisting families to live these values.

Some information about my background: I began my career as a clinical social worker over 25 years ago, knowing I had found my calling. For the first 12 years, I worked mainly with children, youth and families, which included managing an adolescent treatment centre under the auspices of North Shore Family Services, and since moving to Victoria in 1985, providing clinical social work services at Victoria Mental Health (Children’s Team) as well as Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health (Ledger House and Pearkes Centre). In 1990, I began a private practice in which I help both adults and young people address a wide variety of concerns. I also provide employee assistance counselling (known as EAP services) to individuals, couples and families, covered by their employers as a separate benefit. Many people access their employee assistance program, which is often the first point of contact for couples undergoing separation and seeking direction. I have a great deal of experience in working with couples generally, in all aspects of relationship, including separation, as well as working with children and teens to help identify their needs in the separation process.