Working with children and separation in groups

‘No man is an island entire of itself,’ wrote the poet John Donne – and don’t we know just how quickly and how fervently children want to connect with others, to identify with people “just like them”. And so this blog is written for those who work with children and who know the exhaustion of finding the time to work … Read More

NZ Herald: Why are mother-daughter relationships so complex?

The mother-daughter relationship is especially complex: being mothered well, as with much of the roll of the dice in life, is a bit of a lottery. Some of us get lucky and some of us don’t. The myths and taboos about “dissing”, or naming difficulties with our mothers, only serve to isolate those women who have not been the beneficiaries … Read More

NZ Herald: 60 minutes saga: The emotional toll on mother

We have heard in the past days that the child abduction charges in Beirut have been dropped against Brisbane mother, Sally Faulkner. In return she has given the father of her children, Ali Elamine, full custody rights to 5-year-old Lahela and 3-year-old Noah. The child abduction saga has spanned two weeks, and highlighted issues ranging from the difficulties Lebanese women … Read More

NZ Herald: How to navigate new tech with kids

A client in the science world once gave me the statistic that our brain has 100 billion neurons with a quadrillion connections to it. What’s even more amazing, they said, is that the human race struggles to fully understand even a single cell. All very mind-boggling, and yet it is also the backdrop against which we must continue to manage … Read More

NZ Herald: Madonna caught in teen’s worst nightmare

What has been termed “Madonna’s bitter custody battle” regarding her 15-year-old son, Rocco, sounds like every teenage boy’s worst nightmare. No one ever said these type of conflicts are anything but excruciatingly painful for all caught up in them: Parents, children, siblings, grandparents. The intense emotion typically dissipates over time, but usually creates a lasting and significant impact for the … Read More

NZ Herald: How to deal with young children using smart devices

Problems in life are relative, as we all know, and worries about how well a child has done in recent exams would be a comparative luxury for some of the parents who come to talk to me about their children. For Susanna getting her teenage son out of his bedroom, let alone to school, last term would have been a … Read More

Radio Live: How Best to get your Kids to ‘Unplug’

A recent UK poll shows parents are struggling to get their kids off their computers, tablets and phones. Counsellor and family mediator Jill Goldson discusses how to get kids off their devices on Radio Live with Tony Murrell.