Mike went to see a family lawyer when his marriage of 8 years ended badly. He has not spent any meaningful time with his two children Harry aged 2 and Jack aged 4 since he moved out of the family home 9 months earlier.  His ex-partner Jane refuses to allow anything but supervised contact, as she says he can't be alone with his boys, she sometimes brings them to a local park for an hour a month or when she feels like it, but mostly cancels.  

Communication is locked in fiery and critical texts or frequent, blaming emails detailing his deficiencies as a father and husband.  He decides to cut off all financial support which inflames the situation, he knows. The conflict escalates wildly when her interfering mother gets involved.   Mike feels distressed, desperate to see his kids while feeling angry that the system seems stacked against him.

His lawyer suggests filing an immediate case in the Family Court. His lawyer also suggests that Mike do a parenting course for high-conflict separating adults. 

Mike was told by a mate at work that there is a group course offered by a church group in his neighbourhood community centre but Mike finds out there is no place available for the next 3 months and with an hour travel time each way, he can't make it there after work, not to mention he's feeling weird about turning up and sharing his problems.

His lawyer tells him to enrol online, tonight from home in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy coursed offered by The RelationSpace, a trusted service provider that the lawyer knows can manage break-throughs in situations of hostile family conflict.  

His lawyer, as a matter of course, informs Jane's lawyer that Mike is starting RelationSpace Online.

That night, Mike registers, provides some background to his unique situation and completes a secure, online psychometric test.  He is provided with immediate access to a the program, he feels very doubtful that a computer based course can help his specific issues.  

Mike is provided with a step by step behavioural change program validated by years of face to face therapeutic intervention and delivered via a conceptually stimulating user experience. He finds several hours have passed and he's glued to the screen. The content is compelling and relevant to him.

Jane also enrols and commences RelationSpace Online. 

Separately, Mike and Jane learn the behaviour change skills to interact more effectively -  their children are the direct recipients of their better communication and lessened emotional reactivity.

Realising that there are alternate pathways to early resolution of their conflict and in collaboration with their lawyer and maybe some face to face dispute resolution processes, Mike and Jane avoid entering a litigation pathway and effectively implement a shared parenting solution. 

They have learnt new skills, practiced them in a safe online environment and then used them to the benefit of their children.

janine

It's important to Janine that she is known to her friends and colleagues as someone how gets things done. In her career, she assertively leapt at promotions and maintained a corporate profile in banking law. She's proud that she managed to return to work when she had 3 children under 5 years of age. She always relied on the help of au-pairs so she could keep working, often taking work trips as part of her regional area portfolio. Janine tried to listen to her husband Jack as he complained about this dissatisfaction and his constant moves from one job to another; mostly he preferred to be at home while he enjoyed the lifestyle her job provided. 

Janine was incensed when Jack told her he was leaving . He'd met someone who understood his emotional needs more completely. He was taking the kids as they were most attached to him. He said 'they barely recognised her anymore'.  Janine was out for blood. She told anyone who would listen, how Jack was a cheater and a liar, how he was never going to get her kids and certainly not going to get the house or her money. She felt angry and bitter.  Her friends suggested she was hurt and betrayed.  Janine wouldn't hear of it - she'd had handled many cases through court - and she was going to destroy him, financially, emotionally and socially. How dare he humiliate her in this way.  Janine told her lawyer, she planned to exhaust every last avenue of a litigation pathway to get back at Jack.  She was so hell bent on winning, like she always did.

Seven years have passed and Janine and Jack have Final Orders.  Their children grew up in a hostile, uncooperative co-parenting environment. Had Janine been able to access a course like Relationspace Online, she may have had a 'light-bulb moment', an earlier realisation of her role in the dispute and how her one-track thinking, communication, high emotionality and anger made everything more difficult to manage. 

Rachel

Rachel decided early on that she was going to have lots of kids. She just loved looking after her 4 younger brothers. She got into a relationship early, had a child and tried to make ends met. Her boyfriend wasn't around too much, in and out of rehab, found it hard to commit to her and their son.  Rachel moved in with her parents, went from one bad relationship to another. After the birth of her third child, she decided that she needed to get some help in moving out of that abusive relationship. It wasn't that he didn't love her, only, he has a few other kids and ex's, the stress of it all meant he took to drinking, which made him volatile and unpredictable.  

Rachel went to see her local doctor, who suggested she see a counsellor at a local relationship support service, who in turn referred her to a legal support service; she didn't have a lot of spare time or money - and was struggling to manage her time and available resources while trying to look after her sick parents and an ex-boyfriend who was pressuring her for money and more supervised access visits.

An Independent Children's Lawyer or ICL started to help Rachel's children and an urgent application was put to the court. Rachel felt exhausted and could hardly manage the primary tasks of taking care of her family. The ICL gave Rachel an invitation to enrol in Relationspace Online. 

Rachel decided to try it for an hour every weeknight for 2 weeks -  on her ipad while she was folding the mountains of washing and after the kids were tucked up for the night. Lots of the questions that worried Rachel the most were answered and she felt more in control of what she was doing, where to concentrate her efforts, especially when it came to talking to her kids about the separation.  

The program was very compelling and she watched some of the videos over and over again.  It really felt like she had a personal connection to the therapist.

Most nights, the washing never got folded.

Alec

Peter has come a long way since his family law dispute started 4 years ago. After getting some help with a therapist at The Relationspace, he

MaRTIN

Martin grew up in suburban Melbourne in the 1970's. His parents were working class migrants who spent a lot of time at the shop. He got lots of of time to do whatever he wanted. Martin got mixed up with the wrong crowd, mostly just hanging around, but they also got into some tunnel graffiti and over time into some small time drugs and car theft. Martin was sent to live with his grandparents when his parents decided their marriage was over.

Man

Mike went to see a family lawyer when his marriage of 8 years ended badly. He has not spent any meaningful time with his two children Harry aged 2 and Jack aged 4 since he moved out of the family home 9 months earlier.  His ex-partner Jane refuses to allow anything but supervised contact, as she says he can't be alone with his boys, she sometimes brings them to a local park for an hour a month or when she feels like it, but mostly cancels.  

Communication is locked in fiery and critical texts or frequent, blaming emails detailing his deficiencies as a father and husband.  He decides to cut off all financial support which inflames the situation, he knows. The conflict escalates wildly when her interfering mother gets involved.   Mike feels distressed, desperate to see his kids while feeling angry that the system seems stacked against him.

His lawyer suggests filing an immediate case in the Family Court. His lawyer also suggests that Mike do a parenting course for high-conflict separating adults. 

Mike was told by a mate at work that there is a group course offered by a church group in his neighbourhood community centre but Mike finds out there is no place available for the next 3 months and with an hour travel time each way, he can't make it there after work, not to mention he's feeling weird about turning up and sharing his problems.

His lawyer tells him to enrol online, tonight from home in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy coursed offered by The Relationspace, a trusted service provider that the lawyer knows can manage break-throughs in situations of hostile family conflict.  

Man

Mike went to see a family lawyer when his marriage of 8 years ended badly. He has not spent any meaningful time with his two children Harry aged 2 and Jack aged 4 since he moved out of the family home 9 months earlier.  His ex-partner Jane refuses to allow anything but supervised contact, as she says he can't be alone with his boys, she sometimes brings them to a local park for an hour a month or when she feels like it, but mostly cancels.  

Communication is locked in fiery and critical texts or frequent, blaming emails detailing his deficiencies as a father and husband.  He decides to cut off all financial support which inflames the situation, he knows. The conflict escalates wildly when her interfering mother gets involved.   Mike feels distressed, desperate to see his kids while feeling angry that the system seems stacked against him.

His lawyer suggests filing an immediate case in the Family Court. His lawyer also suggests that Mike do a parenting course for high-conflict separating adults. 

Mike was told by a mate at work that there is a group course offered by a church group in his neighbourhood community centre but Mike finds out there is no place available for the next 3 months and with an hour travel time each way, he can't make it there after work, not to mention he's feeling weird about turning up and sharing his problems.

His lawyer tells him to enrol online, tonight from home in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy coursed offered by The Relationspace, a trusted service provider that the lawyer knows can manage break-throughs in situations of hostile family conflict.