Our Brisbane Family Lawyer Explains the Parenting Coordination Australia Training Courses

Divorce or separation is often a stressful and difficult time, especially for families with young children.

The primary concern for many parents is making arrangements for children to spend time with both parents. Those arrangements will either be agreed and formalised by way of consent orders or a parenting plan, or if no agreement can be reached a judge will make orders about the time for the children to spend with each of their parents.

Often conflict doesn’t end with reaching agreement or having orders made. In fact, sometimes the hardest part of the journey is the day to day, week to week and month to month implementation of that agreement or those orders. There will always be decisions to make and disagreements to navigate that aren’t’ covered by the terms of the agreement or orders. What if one parent wants or needs to swap some time, or there is a special occasion not provided for in the orders, or your child needs some medical treatment and you can’t agree on some aspect of it? That's where Parenting Coordination comes in.

The Parenting Coordinator’s role is to assist you both with those issues that arise in the implementation of your agreement or orders about your children, and to educate and coach you both in healthier, lower conflict co-parenting relationship for the benefit of your kids into the post orders or post agreement future.

With years of experience in mediation, collaborative practice, arbitration and parenting coordination, we asked our own Brisbane family lawyer Cassandra Pullos to explain the PCA process and the benefits it can bring to you and your children in your journey as a separated family doing your best to co-parent, or parallel parent post separation.

What is Parenting Coordination?

Parenting Coordination is a conflict resolution process designed for parents post parenting orders or agreements (whether final or interim) to assist in the implementation of those orders or agreements in a child focused way and with an emphasis on reducing the level of parental conflict in the post orders or post agreement period.

Relationship breakdown is an emotionally difficult time, often marked by conflict that spills over into parenting on a day to day basis. Negotiating arrangements for parenting as a separated family, and certainly litigating a parenting case in our adversarial legal system often entrenches and exacerbates that conflict so that by the time you get to an agreement or to the point of a Judge making orders the level of conflict is so high that the implementation of that agreement or those orders becomes fraught with further conflict.

Parenting Coordination, and the appointment of a Parenting Coordinator, is designed as a safety valve during that difficult post agreement or post orders phase.

It contains elements of dispute resolution, conflict education and conflict coaching aimed at helping parents move from what can be a traumatic adversarial process back to a parenting role focused not on conflict but on the needs of their children.

What Does a Parenting Coordinator Do?

A Parenting Coordinator (PC) works closely with both parents to help them implement court orders and parenting agreements. They also assist with developing effective and lasting conflict resolution strategies and co-parenting decisions to ensure parents avoid exposing their children to these conflicts. Other functions of a Parenting Coordinator include reducing the stress for children when transitioning between homes, creating a more relaxed home environment, and helping children maintain a sense of security and trust with their parents. Cassandra Pullos hopes to promote positive relationships with parents and their children in a post separation, co-parenting world.

How Does Parenting Coordination Benefit Parents?

While the focus of Parenting Coordination Australia (PCA) is the children’s needs during a separation, there are many benefits for the parents. First of all, employing a Parenting Coordinator can help reduce the need for future litigation. A coordinator also helps facilitate ways in which both parents can play a positive, active role in their children’s lives. Parents are taught the necessary skills to manage their communication, anger and conflict resolution skills.

Speak To a Brisbane Family Lawyer About Parenting Coordination

Cassandra, our leading Brisbane Family Lawyer, has over 30 years’ experience as a Family Law Specialist. If you would like to engage Cassandra Pullos as your parenting coordinator, one of the country’s leading parenting coordinators, please get in touch. Pullos Lawyers also offers a variety of legal services to assist with Divorce, Property Settlement and International Family Law, on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. To speak to one of our lawyers, contact us via our online form or call us on (07)5526 3646 (Gold Coast office) or (07) 3144 1641 (Brisbane office).