Counselling and Mediation

The Family Court will arrange free and confidential counselling for couples who are having problems with their relationship, or who are separating and need help reaching agreement on issues such as arrangements for care of their children.

Counselling is also available for parents and guardians of a child if they are unable to reach agreement on an important issue concerning the child.

You can contact the Family Court directly or we as your lawyer can do this for you.

Download and complete our Request-For-Counselling-Form.pdf (485KB) or click here to view to our Forms page.

The Family Court strongly recommends counselling as a way to help sort out disputes.

You can ask for counselling at any time, even if the Family Court is not already involved in the matter. If the Family Court is already involved, you can ask for counselling at any stage of the Court process.

The Court will pay for up to six counselling sessions in each 12-month period.

If an application for a parenting order is filed, the parties are referred to counselling to try to sort matters out. You can apply to dispense with counselling if you think it would serve no useful purpose or is inappropriate.

If you cannot agree at counselling, mediation is often attempted. A Mediation Conference is a chance for both sides to discuss their differences with a Family Court Judge, and try to reach agreement. The Judge runs the conference and makes sure each person gets a chance to say what they think. For more information, please contact me.