Children in Focus draws on the expertise of:
Dr Jenn McIntosh
Jenn is a clinical child psychologist, training and research consultant. She is the director of Family Transitions, a clinical, research and training centre, dedicated to the needs of children and parents experiencing family separation or trauma, and to the support of professionals working with them. Jenn holds adjunct positions as Senior Lecturer at Melbourne University and Associate Professor at La Trobe University. She has a high profile in national training and conference forums, in the mental health, welfare and legal sectors. She is well regarded for her ability to articulate and advocate for the psychological wellbeing of children.
In recent years, Jenn has carried out several research studies and training programs for the Australian
Attorney-General's Department and the Department of Family Services. These include the clinical research into Contact Services in Australia (1999), and Child Inclusive Practice in Family and Child Mediation and Counselling (1999). Jenn has designed and trialled an approach to child consultation in the context of family law mediation (Mediation Quarterly, vol 18, no. 1, Fall 2000), and is currently engaged in further study of this approach. Current work includes examination of less adversarial Family Court processes and impacts on the capacity of parents to manage their conflict and parent their children.
Jenn has authored several papers in the areas of attachment formation and loss, and
worked
with children in long-term foster care. She runs an Attachment Clinic, for the assessment and treatment of children traumatised by family loss and transition. Other publications include a meta analysis of the parental conflict and domestic violence literature, with respect to impacts on children's development. She has a particular interest in making psychoanalytic and developmental theories "user friendly", enabling parents, carers and professionals to consider the experience of children more sensitively, and to act on this within systems and structures where a child focus has traditionally been difficult to achieve.
Correspondence to:
Dr Jenn McIntosh
Family Transitions
28 Princes Street
Carlton Victoria 3054
Phone: +61 3 9347 2434
Email: enquiries@familytransitions.com.au
Dr Joan Kelly
Joan is a psychologist, researcher, and mediator who from 1981 - 1999 was Executive Director of the Northern California Mediation Center. She is Past-President of the Academy of Family Mediators, Past-President of the Northern California Mediation Association, and currently Vice-President of the California Dispute Resolution Institute.
Dr. Kelly received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Yale University. Since 1970, her research, clinical, and teaching career has focused on child and family adjustment to divorce, custody and access issues, and divorce and custody mediation. She has published more than 65 articles and chapters in these areas of interest. Her book, Surviving the Break-up: How Children and Parents Cope with Divorce, published in 1980, has remained a classic resource for clinicians, lawyers, judges, students and parents.
Joan is a frequent keynote speaker, workshop leader, and trainer at national and international conferences, including the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, American and California Psychological Associations, Academy of Family Mediators, Family Mediation Canada, Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution, Family Mediation Associations in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and the New Zealand Psychological Association. She has presented children's divorce adjustment, child development, and mediation seminars in Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Sweden.
Dr. Kelly has been honoured for her work with many awards, including the Distinguished Mediator Award from the Academy of Family Mediators, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.
Correspondence to:
Dr Joan B. Kelly
PO Box 7063
Corte Madera
CA 94976-7063 USA
Email: jbkellyphd@mindspring.com
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Dr Tom Fisher
Tom is senior lecturer and coordinator of the graduate programs for law and social science students in Conflict Resolution and Family Law Mediation at La Trobe University. He has qualified as a mediator under the Family Law Act and has also mediated in community,
workplace and planning disputes privately and with the Dispute Resolution Centre of Victoria.
Tom was a consultant in the design and delivery of the original 'Children in Focus ' program, funded by the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department, and an advisor to the Victorian Department of Justice in relation to the Minister's Justice Vision Statement and proposed changes to anti-stalking legislation. He also was a core team member for a project sponsored by the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department entitled 'A Quality Framework for Facilitative Processes in Family Conflict'. He has provided training in conflict resolution and mediation for a range of organisations in Australia and overseas.
Correspondence to:
Dr Tom Fisher
Senior Lecturer
School of Law and Legal Studies
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086 Australia
Email: T.Fisher@latrobe.edu.au
Associate Professor Lawrie Moloney
Lawrie is Head of the Department of Counselling and Psychological Health in the School of Public Health at La Trobe University. He is a registered psychologist and qualified family therapist who teaches across several counselling and counselling psychology programs in the Department. Lawrie also teaches 'Mediating Family Conflict' within the Graduate Diploma in Family Law.
As a former Director of the Family Court Counselling Service in Melbourne, Lawrie has a longstanding interest in Primary Dispute Resolution (PDR), especially as it relates to family law. In 1985, he was awarded the Public Service Board/ Australian National University Fellowship to study the impact of divorce on families. For the past ten years, Lawrie has supervised the practice of family mediators working for community-based organisations.
Lawrie is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Family Studies, a refereed journal, which has a special focus on the impact of transitions such as separation and divorce on children. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Family Law and an assessor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy.
Lawrie's doctoral dissertation was on judicial decision-making in child-related matters in the Family Court of Australia. He has published more than 100 articles and book chapters in the socio-legal field and has worked with Dr Tom Fisher from La Trobe Law on several PDR related projects, including two large-scale evaluations of family mediation services. More recently, Lawrie has made submissions and published several articles on the proposed Family Relationship Centres.
With Dr Jenn McIntosh and Dr Tom Fisher, Lawrie has also developed the Children in Focus project and its more recent extensions. He is currently supporting Dr McIntosh on a large research project aimed at evaluating and better understanding child inclusive practices in post separation parenting disputes. He and Dr McIntosh are co-authors of the multimedia package consisting of a DVD, 'Dialogues with separated parents: Child focused dispute resolution' and companion handbook 'Creating child focused dialogues with separated parents' (2006).
Correspondence to:
Associate Professor Lawrie Moloney
Head of the Department of Counselling and Psychological Health
Department of Counselling and Psychological Health
School of Public Health
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086 Australia
Email: L.Moloney@latrobe.edu.au
Francesca Gerner
Francesca has a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution and is the Family Dispute Resolution Manager for Centacare Catholic Family Services, Melbourne, Australia. Her work as a Family Law mediator informs her work at Children in Focus and vice versa.
Before becoming involved in dispute resolution, Francesca worked for many years in the information communications technology sectors including senior management roles relating to business development and marketing. Her continuing interests in these areas led her to take on the role of Multimedia Editor of the Journal of Family Studies in 2005 and to taking research findings from Children in Focus projects and turning them into accessible training and educative resources for parents affected by separation, and the practitioners who assist them.
Francesca regularly coaches dispute resolution students at the undergraduate and post graduate level and is a member of the Australian Family Mediation Association and the Victorian Association of Dispute Resolution.
In 2006, Francesca juggled multiple roles for Children in Focus including editorial assistance in the development of scripts for the DVD, editor and production manager for the companion handbook, as well as the role of a mediator in one of the clinical demonstrations.
Correspondence to:
Francesca Gerner
Manager
Centacare Catholic Family Services
PO Box 300
Mitcham
Victoria 3132 Australia
Email: Francesca.Gerner@centacaremelbourne.org.au
Caroline Long
Caroline Long has a Masters in Psychology. She is the Project Manager and senior researcher for the major Children in Focus research project 'A comparative study of outcomes for parents and children in Family Law mediation, 2003-2005'.
Correspondence to:
Caroline Long
Project Manager and Senior Researcher
Children in Focus Program
Australian Institute for Primary Care
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086 Australia
Email: C.Long@latrobe.edu.au
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