Registered Clinical Social Worker
209 – 220 Fourth Avenue
Kamloops, BC V2C 3N5
T: (250) 819-0268
F: (250) 374-1894
E: dragonflycounselling@gmail.com
W: www.dragonflycounseling.ca
Fee: $250 per hour
Carrie McNeely is a Registered Clinical Social Worker with 30 years of experience providing assessment and counselling services to families in crisis. Her studies specialized in the process of family reorganization brought about by separation, divorce, and remarriage. Her Master of Social Work thesis examined the effects of marital breakup on children and the factors that contribute to the development of resilience during the reorganization of their families. She has been in private practice for 10 years working as a therapist, a trained family mediator, and more recently, as an assessor for court ordered Views of the Child and Section 15 Custody and Access Reports. In addition, she participates in continuing education that has included strategies to use in high conflict mediation, current research on parental alienation, and expressive play therapy techniques for assessing young children.
On a personal note, Carrie is a child of divorce and the mother in a “yours, mine, and ours” blended family of seven children. She is not surprised by research that suggests that children fare better, through their parent’s separation, when they have an opportunity to express their preferences and contribute to the development of the parenting plan that ultimately is the structure for their lives. She is committed to ensuring that a child’s voice is heard through the use of their words and the things that are meaningful in their lives when preparing a report.
The preparation of a typical report includes a brief discussion with both parents prior to the interview, especially for children under 12; an interview lasting approximately an hour with each child individually; the writing of the report; a brief follow up session with the child or children to ensure that she has accurately communicated the child’s views; and an opportunity for the parents to meet with her to review the report prior to it being forwarded to their respective lawyers or court.
