Ben and Heather speak to the Practice Specialist (Counselling) at Relationships Australia NSW about how to know if your relationship is salvageable. Sandra is a psychologist with a Masters in Couple and Family Therapy and years of experience in relationship counselling. She helps tease out answers to the following questions.

1. If someone has started thinking about separation but hasn't yet spoken to their partner, what's the first thing they should do?
2. What sorts of questions should someone ask themselves if trying to decide whether their relationship is worth saving?
3. How can a psychologist or counsellor help in making the right decision?
4. What are the signs that a relationship is really over?
5. What are the signs it's worth trying again?
6. If the relationship is worth saving, what should I be doing?

Sandra also considers 3 different scenarios and provides her thoughts on whether the relationship can move forward under these circumstances.

The Family Law Amendment Act 2023 was passed through parliament in October 2023 and took effect on 6 May 2024. The Act involves changes to how the Courts will make parenting orders in the "best interest of the child" and challenges the assumption of week-on week-off parenting post-separation.

In this episode, Ben and Heather discuss (and sometimes debate) the need for and impact of the changes.

Ben and Heather have their eighth session answering questions from the Coffs Coast community - and there were some good ones this time.  Here are the topics covered:

While the overall divorce rate in Australia is declining, there is an upward trend in divorce in couples over 50.  Ben and Heather talk about this phenomenon on this podcast and some of the unique complications that arise when calling quits on a long term relationship.

Topics covered include:

Ben and Heather welcome special guest forensic psychologist Dr Robert Simon from San Diego California to talk about resist/refuse behaviour in children, including the heated subject of parental alienation.  Dr Simon is a specialist in child custody matters in the United States and is renowned for his expertise in parent/child contact problems.  He provides an excellent overview of the most common reasons for resist/refuse behaviour, and makes it clear that parental alienation is not the most common cause.

Topics discussed include:

Ben and Heather have put together a "top 10" list of mistakes people make when it comes to child custody disputes.  In this episode they explain why each of these is a mistake and what you could consider doing instead.

In this episode Ben and Heather are joined by barrister Rhys O'Brien, a specialist in complex family law matters, to talk about how the Court deals with Domestic Violence (Family Violence).  They cover a wide range of topics, including the following:

Also discussed was the Family Law Amendment Bill that has been passed through Parliament and will take effect in May 2024 and includes a "streamlined" parenting framework simplifying the "best interests factors".  This legislation may impact how the Court deals with domestic violence issues when deciding children's matters.

This month Ben and Heather addressed a wide array of family law questions from the community, touching on a number of common issues faced by people going through divorce and separation.

The questions included:

On this episode, Ben and Heather were joined by The Honourable Colin Forrest.  Now retired from the Family Court, Colin now handles mediation and arbitration in family law.  We spoke to him about the delicate subject of managing power imbalances, and potentially domestic violence situations, in mediation and arbitration sessions.  Our discussions covered the following subjects:

On this episode, Ben and Heather are joined by two special guests to discuss the growth of specialist Indigenous family courts, known as Indigenous List.  Retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Robyn Sexton started the very first Indigenous List in Sydney in 2014.  Rick Welsh is proud Murrawarri man and coordinator of The Shed suicide prevention centre focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  These two worked together to design and implement a specialist Indigenous family law court.  Together they discuss the following: