Page 17 - Meeting with Children Manual
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Note that these cases can still involve outbursts of mutual strong emotion,
positionality, and difficult negotiations. However, the parents demonstrate a
willingness to engage with the narratives of the other parent, and to try to achieve
an outcome that is agreeable to the whole family. Generally, these parents are
willing to abide by ground rules.
The voices of children often raise unexpected questions for parents. Facilitation of a
parent child meeting can be very effective for Green cases.
Implications for ADR and Child Meetings
Yellow cases make up a significant proportion of the cases that most practitioners
handle. It is not unusual that our clients describe some degree of complexity in the
past, and yet there is no suggestion that these cases are not appropriate for ADR.
Some Yellow cases lend themselves well to traditional facilitative mediation models,
while others require more evaluative or settlement focused approaches. The use of
more therapeutic models of mediation is possible providing the parents
demonstrate a reflective capacity.
Meeting the children in these families can be beneficial for both parents and
children. The children may be experiencing high levels of conflict between their
parents and may feel triangulated/caught in the middle between their parents.
The Yellow nature of the case may mean that Child Centred Levels 2, 3 or 4 may be
available depending on the Parent Readiness Scale and the Child and Youth
Readiness Scale.
Implications for ADR and Child Meetings
While traditional models of family mediation may not be appropriate, new models
of trauma informed mediation or parenting coordination, can be very effective
(Graham and Watson 2016). These models focus on containing the discourses of the
parties, identifying dysregulation and intervening to return calm to the ADR space.
There is an increase in the use of non-face-to-face processes, and an increase the
focus on short term agreements.
The inclusion of child meetings is important in Orange cases. However, there is an
increased risk that parents may attempt to influence what children say, and parents
may seek to cross examine their children about what was said during the meeting.
Parent and child inoculation is therefore more important in these cases. Further
management of the expectations of Orange risk case parents is important so that
parents are aware that feedback may be quite limited.
Orange risk cases feedback can include normalised recommendations about
referrals of children to support services, and generalised feedback about children at
this age and stage of development (Child Centred Model Level 1 and possibly Level
2). More feedback may be possible as parents move towards the Yellow risk zone.
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