When the Family Fractures: Working Confidently with Separated Families

Parental Separation affects a significant proportion of our clients, yet most practitioners receive minimal training in managing these complex family dynamics. This workshop fills critical knowledge gaps, helping you work more effectively with young people and their families while protecting your time, energy, and professional wellbeing.

This workshop is ideal for psychologists, social workers, counsellors, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, GPs, and all other mental health professionals working with adults or children affected by separation. It will help clinicians who feel uncertain when separation dynamics emerge in individual therapy, or who are struggling with managing consent issues and parent involvement. Especially if you are worried your therapeutic recommendations might complicate legal matters; you're unsure when to take on these cases and when to refer; or your between-session workload with these clients is unsustainable.

You'll Leave Knowing:

• evidence-based interventions that work in separated family contexts
• how separation impacts child development and attachment
• tools to identify red flags, know which cases to accept and when to refer
• when you need both parents' consent (and when you don't)
• how to prevent being triangulated and maintain therapeutic boundaries
• confidence about providing court-appropriate documentation
• methods to structure sessions and manage between-session contact
• how to protect yourself legally while maintaining therapeutic effectiveness

This workshop is fully catered.

Tiffany Rochester is a Clinical Psychologist based in Western Australia whose expertise in separated family dynamics has made her a sought-after trainer and consultant in the mental health sector. With over two decades of clinical experience, she brings unique insights from both therapeutic practice and the legal system.

As founder of The Same Mountain and Co-Parenting Companion, Tiffany has developed evidence-based frameworks that transform high-conflict family dynamics into workable co-parenting relationships. Her approach integrates ACT, Compassion-Focused Therapy, and ProSocial principles with practical strategies drawn from extensive experience in:

• expert witness testimony in Family Court proceedings
• court-mandated therapy for families in legal disputes
• child and adolescent mental health services
• youth justice system intervention
• perinatal mental health support
• working with neurodivergent children and their families

Her career spans leadership roles including Past President of the ANZ Association for Contextual Behavioural Science, Research Associate for Telethon Kids Institute, and Council Member for Collaborative Practice Western Australia. Based in Western Australia, she regularly consults with mental health professionals nationwide on complex separated family cases.

Tiffany's straight-talking, practical approach has earned her a reputation for translating complex clinical challenges into actionable solutions. Her training integrates real-world experience with current research, helping practitioners work confidently and competently with separated families while maintaining sustainable practice boundaries.