Child-Inclusive Family Dispute Resolution

Child-Inclusive Family Dispute Resolution is appropriate where:

• parents have concerns about how the child is experiencing his/her changed world; or
• parents disagree about what's in the children's best interests.

Parents are seen both individually and together prior to a practitioner seeing the child, and during this time, it would be determined whether it would be beneficial to also see the child. If so, the child is seen separately to the parents to assess how the child is traveling. The child is usually seen twice, for one hour each time, or more often if the parents consider that the child is showing signs of deterioration in well-being.

Younger children are engaged in drawing and play, as well as conversation. Teenagers engage in conversations. The themes arising in the children's material are explored in order to get an idea of what life is like for them. The process is not about asking the child to make a decision about what living and visiting arrangements should be put in place. Typically, the child is not even directly asked to give an opinion about what living and visiting arrangements they would prefer. Instead, the process is about ascertaining how the child is feeling, and to see if there are any messages he/she that would like the parents to hear. Practitioners are trained to recognize when a child has been set up to give a particular opinion. The essence of what the child is experiencing and feeling and what the child wants his/her parents to understand is then conveyed back to the parents again in a combination of individual and joint sessions.

With this information, parents frequently find that they are in a better position to undertake the negotiation phase of Family Dispute Resolution and are more likely to come up with arrangements that will meet the best interests of their children.

Where a child has begun showing signs of deterioration in well-being following the parents' divorce, this process usually identifies the aspects of the separation process and the aspects of the current emotional environments inhabited by the child that the child is finding difficult to negotiate.

Research by the leader in Child-Inclusive Family Dispute Resolution, Jenn Macintosh, suggests that children's well-being outcomes are much improved in families that have undergone this intervention. more ...