Education Archive

Lorri Yasenik and Jon Graham have moved their training online.

The formation of practice-with-peers TM groups is central to the learning environment. We have tried and tested the p-w-p groups and not only do they work, they are fun! Each small p-w-p group meets together either online or in-room, to learn together through discussion and skills practice. Each course is supported by ample tutorial time with Lorri and Jon, and also an extensive library of videos and other materials.

The Online learning allows trainees to login from anywhere. We set about to come up with a timetable that makes attendance manageable across continents and time zones.

Click here for more information

In lieu of the 2020 ADRBC Symposium, our team is working on creating a series of webinars for the benefit of our members. These webinars will be released each month and will be made available for purchase as individuals or as complete package. Individual webinars will contribute 2 CPD credits to your portfolio, with the entire series contributing 14 credits.

Webinars will be recorded and made available for those purchasing the package once they have commenced, or for those who want to view a past webinar.

Click here for more information

4-Part Webinar Series at 2pm Eastern on Thursdays:
September 24, 2020
October 8, 2020
October 22, 2020
November 5, 2020
2:00pm Eastern - 1 hour for each

Child protection mediations are among the most difficult mediations done by mediators. There are many reasons for this. The subject matter is always difficult and emotionally charged for all parties because you are dealing with children and their caretakers, many of whom have suffered or are suffering from addiction, disabilities or mental health challenges. The breadth of knowledge required encompasses provincial and federal laws, region specific practices, advanced mediation skills, and an understanding of diverse groups and the acute, chronic and complex traumas that have influenced and affected that group or individual intergenerationally. The effect of trauma and stress on the brain architecture and development of children is a complex but important area that will also be touched upon.

This 4-part course will provide an overview of what you need to know to effectively mediate child protection cases. It will also provide some specific trauma informed tools that can assist you in preparing for mediation with high conflict, traumatized parties.

Click here for more info

Presented by: Susan Boyan & Kat Bellamano
Location: Via Webinar
Time: Fridays, 1 - 3pm EDT

Parenting Coordination is a child- centred dispute resolution process for families with children who are separated or divorced and continue to have unresolved conflict. Generally, it is a process that includes coaching, and education, consensus building and, when authorized, decision making. Families can enter parenting coordination by contract or court order, depending on the laws in their area.

Who should attend:

It is for professionals who wish to become parenting coordinators and work with high-conflict divorce families. Generally, course participants should be practicing lawyers, dispute resolution professionals or mental health professionals with many years of experience working with families. Qualifications to practice as a parenting coordinator vary by region and additional training or skills may be required in your jurisdiction.

Click here for more info and registration

Presented by: BC Hear the Child Society
Chaired by: Carla Lewis, Lewis Kennelly
Time: 9am to 12:30pm
Where: Attend via Live Webinar

Key Areas Addressed:
• Court and procedural matters
• Alternative dispute resolution
• Parenting, property, support and family maintenance enforcement
• Starting a new practice in a pandemic and other personal experiences

Who Should Attend:
• Lawyers of all levels advising on family law matters
• Family law arbitrators
• Family law mediators
• Government officials and employees engaged in family matters
• Family service providers

Click here for more info

Presented by: BC Hear the Child Society
Instructors: Dr. Mary Korpach and Arlene H. Henry, QC, plus guest presenters
Location: Via Webinar
Time: 9am to 5pm

Who should attend:

Any professional who meets with children and believes children should have a voice in family justice matters that affect them.

Any professional seeking to apply to the BC Hear the Child Society Roster?

What you will learn:

Mechanisms for hearing the voice of the child

Social science research on the benefits and cautions of listening to the voices of children

Integrating the child’s voice into different dispute resolution options

How to conduct a Hear the Child interview and write a non-evaluative HTC report

Pitfalls to avoid as a non-evaluative child interviewer, including interviewer bias and memory, suggestibility

Click here for more info -- and check back here for updates and registration details

Save these dates!!

Presenters: Lorri Yasenik PhD and Jon Graham

Calgary SW, Alberta

For Child Specialists, Family Dispute Resolution Professional, Parenting Coordinators, Family Mediators, Child and Family Counsellors, Family Lawyers, Independent Children’s Lawyers.

This two day program will explore the skills necessary to authentically meet with post-separation children and youth and bring the voice of children to parents. Starting from a position that all children over 5 years should be given the opportunity to participate in ADR processes that affect them, Lorri and Jon consider the question of how to authentically engage with children and youth, creating space for he messages from children can be brought back to parents in a way that is not only safe, but is also is authentic to the child.

More Details

Presenters:Lorri Yasenik PhD and Jon Graham

Calgary SW, Alberta

For Child Specialists, Family Dispute Resolution Professional, Parenting Coordinators, Family Mediators, Child and Family Counsellors, Family Lawyers, Independent Children’s Lawyers

This two day program will explore the skills necessary to bring the voice of children to parents. Starting from a position that all children over 5 years should be given the opportunity to participate in ADR processes that affect them, Lorri and Jon consider the question of how the messages from children can be brought back to parents in a way that is not only safe, but is also is authentic to the child.

More Details

Presenters:Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC
Suzanne S. Williams

Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver

Who should attend: Lawyers in all practice areas, judges, family justice counselors, mediators, arbitrators, parenting coordinators, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, law students, and everyone whose work impacts children.

Learning level: All levels

This multi-disciplinary training meets the needs of professionals who work with children in all areas of law. It will help you sharpen your knowledge and practice on the best interests of the child, and meet each child's unique circumstances considering influences such as culture, ability, and trauma.

Using a practice framework, grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we will provide essential information on healthy development for children, best interest practices, and other access to justice needs at each age and stage of the child's life.

You will receive concrete examples and tips on how to adapt your practice to meet the child in their particular context. We will also explore the continuum of services available to children in BC to address these issues, and how to triage a situation given the lived reality of the child.

More Details

Presenters: Dr. Lorri Yasenik and Jon Graham

Edmonton, AB

At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to:
▪ Identify what it means to be child centred and non-evaluative when including children and youth of separated families and in child protection environments
▪ Engage in directive and non-directive ways of meeting with children and understand metaphor and projection as ways children show and tell you about their lived worlds
▪ Identify the four levels of child involvement and the cases in which each level is most appropriate
▪ Apply a methodology for each of the four levels to compare and contrast the presentation of cases at each level
▪ Make use of the Child and Youth Concerns Scale, the Parent Readiness Scale, and the Child and Youth Readiness Scale
▪ Be able to effectively provide feedback to parents and other third parties
▪ Understand the ethical implications of child-centred practice, and the challenges of child- centred strategies

Details

Registration

Presented by: Pacific Business & Law Institute
Instructor: Mary Mouat, Q.C.

UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, BC

Parenting and custody considerations are some of the most delicate and complex issues faced by family law practitioners. The Family Law Act requires lawyers and others working with families to ensure that parents and the courts consider the best interest of children only. Disputes involving children can be damaging to the children and the family. Disputing parents can heighten intensity and create additional conflict and cost in already complex family disputes. Lawyers and others practising in this difficult area, along with their clients, benefit from maintaining an up-to-date understanding of the law, and of best practices, strategies and tools for resolving disputes and reducing conflict while protecting the best interests of the children.

For more information, please click here.

Presented by: BC PC Roster Society
Instructor: Arlene H. Henry, QC and guest presenters

UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, BC

Individuals seeking to apply to the BC Hear the Child Roster as a non-evaluative child interviewer can register for Day 3 of the 5 day PC training course which will focus on the “Voice of the Child”. The social science research on the benefits and cautions of listening to the voices of children and adolescents will be reviewed; and various ways the child’s voice can be obtained and integrated into different dispute resolution options will be identified, such as child representation, mediation, assessment, parenting coordination, and judicial processes. The factors related to the reliability of the input provided by children and adolescents, including interviewer bias, memory, suggestibility and maturity, will be discussed. Finally, a developmentally informed interview protocol will be introduced.

• BC Hear the Child Society recognizes 7 hours from Day 3 towards the child interview skills portion of the basic training segment of the Roster application;
• BC Parenting Coordinator Roster Society recognizes 7 hours from Day 3 towards the child interviewing portion of the basic training segment of their Roster application.

For more information, please click here.

Calgary SW
1314, 15th Ave South West Calgary

Meeting with Children places the meeting with a child as a central element in family mediation processes.

How do we create opportunities for children to describe their experience of their family life in the post separation world. How do children and young people want to speak with us? How do we get out of the way and just listen to what children have to say?

This course teaches play based and expressive techniques to create a safe space for sharing through metaphor. The course also teaches pathways for giving information back to parents in ways that honors the child's right to privacy.

Meeting with Children is a four day program. We cover:

• Authentic listening and the child voice
• Child development and attachment theory
• Models for play based meetings with children
• Five strategies for a child meeting
• Meeting with parents and how to give feedback

More Information

Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, SFU
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver (enter via Seymour Street courtyard entrance)

The 2018 ADRBC Symposium brings together a progressive, dynamic group of professionals including arbitrators, mediators, lawyers, in-house counsels, HR professionals, corporate and other users of ADR services. The eclectic line-up of speakers presenting at the 2018 Symposium will explore a wide variety of topics related to the challenges, opportunities, new developments and the rapidly expanding role of ADR in the 21st century.

Roster members may register at a discount by choosing the “Co-operating Entities” registration option on the registration page.

Presented by: CLEBC
Instructor: Arlene H. Henry, QC and guest presenters

Vancouver, BC

Individuals seeking to apply to the BC Hear the Child Roster as a non-evaluative child interviewer can register for Day 3 of the 5 day PC training course which will focus on the “Voice of the Child”. The social science research on the benefits and cautions of listening to the voices of children and adolescents will be reviewed; and various ways the child’s voice can be obtained and integrated into different dispute resolution options will be identified, such as child representation, mediation, assessment, parenting coordination, and judicial processes. The factors related to the reliability of the input provided by children and adolescents, including interviewer bias, memory, suggestibility and maturity, will be discussed. Finally, a developmentally informed interview protocol will be introduced.

• BC Hear the Child Society recognizes 7.0 hrs towards the child interview skills portion of the basic training;
• BC Parenting Coordinator Roster Society recognizes 7.0 hrs towards their child interviewing portion of the PC basic training.

Details & Registration

Instructor: Barbara Jo Fidler, Ph.D., C.Psych., AccFM, FDRP PC

Toronto

This course is suitable for therapists, custody/access assessors, mediators, parenting coordinators, child protection workers and lawyers.

You will learn about:

• the continuum of parent-child contact problems – affinities, alignments, justified (realistic estrangement), alienation & hybrid cases
  differentiating types & severity levels
• a research update on the impact of alienation on children, adolescents & young adults
  assessment considerations
• differentiated legal & clinical remedies for mild, moderate & severe cases
  the role of the court
• the nuts & bolts of systemic family-based (reintegration) interventions (multi-faceted family therapy) for mild & some moderate cases, including referral management, screening & intake, informed consent process & contracting, psycho-educational tools & clinical interventions, strategies & techniques

Course Materials provided, include: power point handout, comprehensive resources/seminal articles (with some recommended readings provided in advance of training), screening & clinical intake checklists and questionnaires, sample orders, sample Family Therapy Intervention Agreement, intervention tool kit, Parent Education Handout Package & more.

Fees: $850.00 + $110.50 (HST) = $960.50
(includes light continental breakfast and health break snacks)

For more information and registration: Download the PDF

Contact Camilla Graziani at camilla.fidleradmin@bell.net (416) 481-2046

Instructor: Michael J. Lomax

Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver

Have you noticed more people engaging in “high conflict” behaviour these days? Someone yelling at a receptionist? A colleague who often gets into arguments and doesn’t take responsibility for their actions? A client who files multiple complaints over a miscommunication?

These types of behaviours are increasingly common, and as a legal professional, it is more important than ever to be able to manage individuals with high conflict personalities who repeat patterns of high conflict behaviours.

At this one-day workshop, you will learn the theory of high conflict behaviour, and explore skills and techniques to manage high conflict disputes. You will draw from your own experiences, refine your existing skill set, and practice new strategies, so that can you leave this course with insight and confidence when dealing with high conflict behaviour.

Join us and learn how to effectively clear up conflict today!

Law Society of BC CPD Hours
6.5 hours (a minimum of 1 hour will involve aspects of professional responsibility and ethics, client care, and relations, and/or practice management)

Course Instructor
Michael J. Lomax — Michael Lomax Law Corporation, Victoria

Early Bird Pricing – Register by September 14
In-Person: $629
Articled student pricing available for in-person registration

Click here for more information

Presenter: Kim Hetherington, B.Sc.

Kim is a social worker with MCFD in the Fraser Region who has developed an expertise in the science of childhood adversity and its impact on child’s development and functioning through her extensive research and training. Kim is training in Dr. Bruce D. Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics Certification Program to continue to enhance her clinical skills. Kim’s social work experience has included child protection, family service, guardianship, resource social work, and Dispute Resolution Consultant. Kim supports East and South Fraser in her role as a Guardianship/Children & Youth with Special Needs Consultant. Kim also provides trauma informed care support as a coach for the Complex Care Intervention Program in East Fraser.

Date: Fri, Nov 30; 10am – 3:30pm (registration begins at 9:30am)
Location: UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, BC

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

How do we view trauma and its impact on a child’s ability to express their views in a Hear the Child Interview? What about the impact of trauma of the child and the development and function of their brain and its long-term effects into adulthood? How do we ask questions in a way to get to the child’s experience in separation and divorce?

This workshop will examine separation and divorce as one type of trauma; trauma of experience and not simply an event. It will explore how the stress of the experience triggers the brain based response system (the flight, flight or freeze response) and can impact a child’s brain development and function. With this understanding, and through examples, it will assist in the creation of a developmentally sensitive plan for the meeting with a child to enable the child to express their true views as clearly as possible. It will support a further understanding of how a trauma inspired practice is a universal approach that can be used in all contexts and situations regardless of how much one knows of the experience of the individual.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Discuss the types of trauma and the brain based response system

Identify the impacts of trauma on children, their brain development and ability to express themselves

Provide options and examples for meetings with the children

Explore trauma inspired practice and its more general application

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Hear the Child Roster members

Parenting Coordinator Roster members

Collaborative Professionals

Mediators

Family Law Therapists/ Assessors

Children’s Lawyers

Registration Form

Instructor: Robin M. Deutsch, PhD, ABPP,

University of Baltimore, Hilda and Michael Bogomolny Room, Student Center, Fifth Floor

This training program will focus on three areas of complex child custody work for new and experienced evaluators, attorneys, judges, parenting coordinators, and family therapists. Topics will include: assessing and managing difficult clients including those with mental illness, substance abuse, trauma, and personality disorders; assessment of intimate partner violence and effects on children, parenting, and co-parenting; an introduction to addressing children’s resistance or refusal to have contact with a parent.

For more information, please view the PDF

Facilitated by: Terri Rypkema, RCC
9:00 am to 4:00 pm, UBC Robson Square
In this introductory course, participants discovered the basic characteristics and causes of Parental Alienation Syndrome; and learned how to recognize parental alienation in families going through a high-conflict divorce involving child custody concerns.
Details

9:00 am to 5:00 pm (registration 8:30am)
Diamond Ballroom at Vancouver Masonic Centre, Fourth Floor, 1495 West 8th Ave
Basic & Advanced: $695 and up
Basic only: $425 and up
Details

9:00 am to 4:30 pm BOTH DAYS
Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver
or attend via Live Webinar
Presented by CLEBC

Hear the Child Society: 5 hours of course content has been approved as applicable towards the 17 hours of Additional Training required for admission to the BC Hear the Child Interviewer Roster

Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 13.5 hours
Details

Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, SFU
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver (enter via Seymour Street courtyard entrance)

The 2017 BCAMI Symposium brings together a progressive, dynamic group of professionals including arbitrators, mediators, lawyers, in-house counsels, HR professionals, corporate and other users of ADR services. The eclectic line-up of speakers presenting at the 2017 Symposium will explore a wide variety of topics related to the challenges, opportunities, new developments and the rapidly expanding role of ADR in the 21st century.

Roster members may register at a discount by choosing the “Cooperating Entities” registration option on the registration page.

There is an Early bird rate of $800 for Mental Health Professionals, ask for the reduced MHP rate (expires Thursday February 11, 2016). The Conference has been approved for 6 hours towards the 17 hours of Additional Training required for admission to the BC Hear the Child Interviewer Roster. Details

Speakers: Various
Presented by CLEBC
9:00 am to 4:30 pm (both days), Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver
The Conference has been approved for:

• 3 hours towards the 17 hours of Additional Training required for admission to the BC Hear the Child Interviewer Roster

Details

Presented by: The Victoria Family Law Section, CBABC
Speaker: Professor Nick Bala
12:30 pm, Barristers Lounge, Fifth Floor, Courthouse Library, 850 Burdett Avenue, Victoria
Details

Speaker: John-Paul Boyd
2:00 pm, BC Courthouse Library, Boardroom, Third Floor, Vancouver
Details

1:30 pm [AGM Notice & Agenda]

9:00 am to 4:00 pm, The Listel Hotel
$250 plus GST for a total of $262.50
Notice of CLE

Presented by Terry Harris
9:00 am to 5:00 pm, The Blue Horizon Hotel
Notice of Course

Speaker: Dr. Joan Kelly
Presented by BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society
9:00 am to 4:30 pm, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University
Course Flyer and Registration Form

Dr Barbara Jo Fidler
[Day 3 of PC training] 50% discount for Members
Details

Instructor: John-Paul Boyd

Course Provided By: Lisa Alexander and Darrin Hotte
Course Flyer

[Notice of AGM & Agenda]

4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Brown Henderson Melbye
Details

4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Pushor Mitchell LLP
Details

5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Law Courts Inn Restaurant
Details

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm, Kamloops
Details

9:00 am to 4:30 pm, UBC Robson Square
BC Hear the Child Society Members will receive a $50 discount on the registration fee for the two-day course. To take advantage of this discount offer, become a member.
Details