Join us for the Central Coast Family Law Pathways Annual Dinner 2023 to connect with other professionals in the legal and social sectors who work with separating families in our region. Our major network event for the year is held to advance our objective to support professionals working within or alongside the Family Law System to achieve the best outcomes for separating families.

This year our guest speaker is clinical psychologist Dr Catherine Boland. Dr Boland will present on the topic "First, do no harm: The ethics and dilemmas of working with children and families in family court." Family lawyers, judicial officers, mediators and mental health clinicians working in family law are usually faced with complex and multifactorial problems and ethical dilemmas. Working with parents and children in crisis we are often compelled to improve the outcomes for these families. At the same time, our interventions (legal, social or therapeutic) can often have further consequences for these vulnerable children and families. What are these challenges? How can we determine the risk of harm in our interventions? What sort of thinking and decision making can assist us minimise or manage harm to these families? This workshop will assist you understand some of the ethical issues in working with children and families in the family law sector and to apply critical and evaluative thinking to your interventions with these families.

1 CPD point can be obtained for mediators and members of the legal profession.

In addition to providing professional development, the dinner is an opportunity to develop greater awareness of Central Coast services for separating families and establish professional networks across local organisations.

About the Speaker:

Dr Catherine Boland is a specialist clinical psychologist who works with children, parents and families in high conflict relationships. She had degrees in clinical psychology and education. She has spent her career working with children and parents in hospital, educational and clinical settings.

Catherine currently runs a private clinical psychology practice in Sydney, “The Relationspace” where she provides expert opinion, report writing and therapy in complex family law cases. Catherine provides ongoing supervision of trainee and junior clinical psychologists. She speaks and writes about the issues facing children and parents in the family law system and appears frequently at national and international conferences on these topics.