What does cumulative harm mean in family law practise?
Children involved in family law rarely experience parental separation as one isolated event, their presentation may reflect the accumulation of repeated experiences over time: exposure to parental conflict, disrupted relationships, unpredictable transitions, loyalty...
The Hidden Impact of Repeated Disclosure
Recent discussions across child protection, family law, and trauma research have increasingly focused on the importance of listening to children. This is a significant and overdue shift. Yet emerging evidence about trauma, memory, and repeated disclosure suggests that...
The Cost of Being Heard
We often speak about giving children a voice. Far less attention is paid to what it costs them to use it. In family law and child protection matters, a child may tell their story to police, child protection workers, therapists, lawyers, family consultants, report...
When Child Protection Steps Back
Should the Child Come Home? Or Has the Parent Changed Enough? At what point has risk reduced enough that statutory intervention is no longer required, even though adversity remains? Risk and adversity are not the same thing. Child protection exists to reduce the risk...
The Child Who ‘Wouldn’t Engage’
One lesson we have learned repeatedly is that children who are described as "not engaging" are often communicating more than anyone realises. In multidisciplinary meetings, we frequently hear phrases such as "she won't participate," "he refuses contact," or "they...
What Recent Research Tells Us About Children’s Refusal Behaviours
Across family law, child protection, and trauma-informed practice, there is growing recognition that children's refusal and avoidance behaviours cannot be understood through a simple compliance lens. Recent research examining child trauma, attachment disruption, and...
When Did Children’s Distress Become Non-Compliance?
One of the most concerning trends across child protection, family law, education, and mental health systems is how often children's distress is interpreted as resistance. A child refuses contact and is described as oppositional. A young person disengages from therapy...
Moving Beyond Behaviour: Listening, Understanding and Supporting Children
When a child or young person is demonstrating behaviours that significantly limit their quality of life, our first question should not be "How do we stop the behaviour?" It should be "What has happened to this child, and what is the behaviour communicating?" Three...
A Neurodiversity-Informed Approach to Family Separation
What is happening in the Sector? Neurodivergent Families engaging in separation & Divorce. One of the emerging conversations within the family law, child protection and therapeutic sectors is the growing recognition that neurodivergent families experience...
When should we see someone?
One of the greatest misconceptions in children's services is that intervention begins once a diagnosis has been made. In reality, intervention should begin the moment a child's functioning starts to decline. Whether the child is experiencing anxiety, trauma,...