When setting up my private practice in Sydney, I chose to specialise in stepfamilies as Sydney had limited resources and professional guidance back then. As a young step mum, I wish I had guidance when starting life as a step mum.

So, after my Postgraduate in Psychotherapy Studies, I set out to become informed about stepfamilies. Fortunately, I was able to train with Jeannette Lofas in New York city with the Stepfamily Foundation also with Lisa Doodson of Happy Steps in London. And I continue to expand on this knowledge primarily through my clients, who teach me so much.

Moving through the transition from where two people who have created a family together to single parenting and re-partnering is difficult. Often with emotions of grief and loss of what you once had and now forming new relationships with your children as single parents. Then re-partnering and the children learning to accept a new caregiver in their lives needs a new awareness for all. To relinquish the ’spousal mindset’ to a ‘co-parenting mindset’ and then to a new ‘parent mindset’ needs skills.