Are you considering or currently going through a Separation or Divorce?
Feeling confused, emotional, overwhelmed or alone?
Wanting to try and avoid the Family Court and expensive traditional legal costs?
With a background in law, counselling, psychology and coaching we have the skills and
the resources to work with you to help you emotionally and confidently get through
this challenging time, feeling educated, organised, prepared and genuinely able to thrive beyond.
Book a time with us now to discuss how we can help. xx
If you are considering Separation, we can help you carefully plan and provide you with the support you need all the way.
Our clients describe the Planner as 'a hug throughout it all'
It will step you through the options, provide effective checklists, explain legal jargon, provide important communication strategies and tips, guidance on providing help for the children, financial negotiations and tips, strategies to remain safe and help you get back on your feet and space to add evidence and a years worth of diary entries to help you recall things more easily.
Understand your legal options during separation and divorce
Develop a separation plan to help you feel organised, educated and empowered through the process
Ensure you have a safe exit strategy and can remain safe
Learn how to communicate with your spouse and children about separating
Understand how to protect your assets and secure your finances before separating
Record all your evidence and important dates and appointments in one place
Get organised with the practical and easy to follow checklists on what to prepare, what to locate and disclose
Self care strategies and wellness tips
enrol in the ultimate divorce course
Feeling confused? Do you need help understanding what to do next?
We've Got You!
This is one of the most comprehensive, easy to follow, practical and best value for money courses available in Australia. It has been carefully written by lawyers, mediators, psychologists, wellness experts and financiers to help you all the way.
Thousands of dollars worth of expert advice presented in an empathetic, organised, easy to follow way, which you can do at your own pace.
Dealing with the emotional challenges of separation and divorce for you and the kids
How to co-parent with your former partner
Strategies for dealing with different personalities in families
Understand what it means legally to be separated and what to expect during separation
Understand your legal options to reach financial property and/or parenting arrangements and how to minimise your costs along the way
Create a comprehensive separation plan which is easy to follow and helps you feel more organised and in control
What documents do you need to locate, secure, disclose? or get from the other party?
Child and spousal support options
Guidance on legal document preparation
Budgeting and financial guidance
Prepare for mediation or trial, if required
How to deal with domestic violence concerns and safe exit planning
Counselling, coaching and communication strategies
Wellness and self care help
enrol in the Financial wellness Course
This exceptional course will help you gain a really practical and valuable understanding of banking, superannuation, budgeting, your financial position, how to keep your finances secure, how to ensure you get a fair financial settlement and financial planning for the future.
Get financial and legal expert advice and improve your long term financial position in order to better protect your future.
Brought to you by Separation Support Network &
award-winning financial adviser Helen Baker
This is also a wonderful gift suggestion for anyone looking to support a family member or friend through separation/divorce. Each planner also comes with a small gift.
Thousands of dollars worth of advice for only $89.95 including postage within Australia.
(This version was updated in June 2024)
No matter where you are in the separation or divorce stage, we understand how hard it is, and we are here to support you. You are not alone.
We help reduce the stress by providing you with the education and practical guidance you need to understand all the options available to you.
We also carefully listen to you on what you want to do, to move forward. If you would like to arrange an online 30-minute complimentary mini session we can discuss where you are at and what help you feel you need, at your stage in the process. This just requires a Zoom connection.
We will be honest about what we can do to assist you to get the best outcome, and give you a firm understanding of the costs associated with the help. It will not be a sales pitch from us.
If you decide to proceed with Separation Support Network, you are welcome to book a PAID one-on-one confidential consultation with one of our highly trained senior separation support personnel. The first appointment will require a new client form to be completed and returned, to help us gain a better understanding of your position and to not waste your precious time.
As seen in our testimonials, we are renowned for having excellent relationships with our clients and are very conscious of providing quality, affordable services, all the way.
We take great pride in ensuring that every one of our service providers have your best interests at heart, emotionally and financially. Our motto is ‘providing our clients with a hug all the way.’
Separation Support Network provides one-on-one support to guide you through the entire separation and divorce process. We provide counselling support, help you navigate the immediate practical steps of your separation, listen to your unique circumstances, outline your options and recommend the services you need. We also provide help long term through your separation and divorce journey to reach your longer term goals.
We do have a panel of lawyers who can assist, if and when required, but we work with you to avoid legal costs as much as possible by helping you understand all your options, assist you to gather your documentation and evidence, draft your proposed terms, and coordinate other specialist support if required to support your position. This helps avoid a lot of the initial outlays you would normally experience in a law firm, which often charge very high legal costs, per hour, for their time. It also helps you avoid a lot of time, stress and frustration.
Once legal matters are resolved by traditional firms, our clients report they often feel a sense of confusion and concern about what comes next - on how to actually co-parent and fulfill the parenting obligations, how to deal with the financial arrangements that were agreed upon, where to obtain the necessary financial education to manage your settlement, and how to secure your financial future. There is often the need to get help to change other key legal and financial documents, strategies to assist with co-parenting and communication with former partners, sorting the sale of assets, access to counselling for the family, finding a new career or a plan on how to start the next chapter of life. Separation Support Network can walk beside you through all of this. We help you find the care you need and work collaboratively with a team who can assist.
Our aim is to ensure our clients are safe, emotionally supported all the way, personally educated and empowered to make their own decisions, and ultimately achieve a fair and equitable settlement, suitable parenting arrangement and successful future.
The most common things said to us over the years by our clients:
"I am so confused about what to do next, where to get the help I need and who to trust."
"I can't work out what financial documents I even need to access and what I have to disclose ."
"I worked all my life to save and secure my superannuation and now we are going to destroy it with all the ongoing legal bills."
"I was a good parent and we had a great relationship but now I just can't reconnect with them."
We hear you!
Separation Support Network is essentially a one stop service network where you no longer need to spend countless hours finding the resources, locating kind and supportive care, legal and financial expertise, all at an affordable rate.
We work alongside incredibly experienced, supportive specialists who share our values in making the separation and divorce process more amicable, more empowering, more supportive and more affordable.
Mediators
Psychologists and counsellors
Parent assist programmes
Empower programmes
Lawyers
Domestic Violence support
Financial Planners and Advisors
Property Valuers including farming valuers
Banking advice
Business and Company valuers
Forensic Accounting and IT
Private Investigators
Accountants
Mortgage Brokers
Business brokers
Conveyancing and Will and Estate Planning support
Life Coaches
High Conflict Coaches
Career assist - resumes, job applications and interview preparation.
Empower You programmes
Our clients have also reached out and requested that we prepare practical and affordable resources including audio/visual podcasts and webinars which consist of easy to understand, questions and answers to many of the day-to-day issues that they experience, but don’t know how to do. These can be booked and listened to at any time, anywhere by our clients. A transcript is also provided for our paid webinars.
In late 2024, Separation Support Network will release a series of highly practical webinars for all our clients at a very affordable price which can be viewed any time, anywhere as part of our new Separation and Divorce course.
These webinars are not just made up of general information about topics. They are step by step practical guides on how to get through this challenging process to ensure your safety and legal rights.
We have interviewed some of the leading experts on these most sought after topics and hope that you find the content understandable, relatable and invaluable. Please feel free to reach out anytime to suggest additional topics you would like us to add to our webinar library or to add to our course.
Given the nature of our support services, last minute cancellations are costly, and it means that other clients may miss out on receiving the required support. For cancellations within 48 hours of the scheduled appointment there is a $65 part fee payment. For less than 24 hours cancellation notice or a non-show, the full session fee will need to be charged. These fees are refunded however if the session can be filled at the last minute. Thank you for your understanding.
A Family Report is used to provide a court with an independent assessment of a family law dispute. It offers an independent, expert view of the issues surrounding the parental dispute, which assists the court in making a decision about the child’s best interests in resolving the matter.
As a Family Report can be used by the court to make a decision on parenting matters, it’s important that you fully understand their significance and prepare for any interviews you’re asked to attend.
Why are family reports written?
Family Reports are written to assist parents in dispute about what is in their child’s best interests, or to assist the Court in determining what is in a child’s best interests if the matter is being litigated.
A family report writer’s job is to make observations and recommendations about the future care and living arrangements that are in the best interests of children in parenting disputes.
A family report writer can either be a Family Consultant appointed by the Court or jointly elected by the parties in the parenting dispute. They are usually prepared and written by either a psychologist or social worker who have the relevant skills and experiences with children and families.
Who is interviewed?
After the Family Report writer has been appointed or elected, they will conduct a series of interviews and observation sessions. If your matter is in court, the Family Report writer will also read the affidavit and any other material you and your ex-partner have filed as part of the case.
Usually, each parent is interviewed individually and observed interacting with the child. Depending on the complexity of the case and the number of people involved, others may also be invited to be interviewed. This includes anyone who will be involved in looking after the child or may be living with the child, including grandparents, extended family members, step-parents.
If appropriate, the child or children themselves may also be interviewed. However this depends on their age and health, and the child must consent to the interview.
The purpose of these interviews is for someone independent of the family to gather necessary information and make an informed decision about the best interests of the child. As a result, it’s likely that the interviewer will ask each parent about:
• Your background;
• Your involvement with the child before the separation;
• Whether your involvement with the child has changed following separation, to what extent, and why;
• The issues associated with your family law dispute;
• What you believe will be in the best interests of the child moving forward; and
• Whether you believe there are any risks to the child and/or your response to any allegations that the child is at risk.
PLEASE NOTE: Your interview with the Family Report writer is not confidential, so it is important to remember that anything you say to them can be included within the final report if it’s deemed to be relevant material and has been used to form their judgement.
Do I get to see the Family Report?
In order for you to see a court issued Family Report, it must first be formally released.
Private Family Reports usually take around 4-8 weeks to be released.
Once the report is released, it can only be viewed by you, your ex-partner and the respective lawyers. This means that it cannot be shown to anyone else, including any of the other people interviewed as part of the case unless the court gives permission for this.
It is illegal to publish the report or distribute the information within it.
What happens if I don’t agree with the Family Report findings?
One or both parties may disagree with the observations or recommendations contained in the Family Report. The Family Report on its own is not legally binding on the parties as the Family Court will just see it is an experts opinion, and a judge will therefore use their discretion on how much emphasis they will place on the reports findings.
If you dispute the findings of the report, and your case goes to Trial, you can ask for the report writer to be called as a witness in the trial. That way, they are open for cross-examination on their findings.
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DISCLAIMER: The material contained on this website is for general educational and information purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, medical or psychological advice or care. While every care has been taken in the information provided, no legal responsibility or liability is accepted, warranted or implied by the authors or Separation Support Network and any liability is hereby expressly disclaimed. For specific advice please contact us at [email protected]. All information contained on the website remains the intellectual property of Separation Support Network and is for your personal educational use only. The information must not be reproduced or distributed without the express permission of Separation Support Network.
Separation Support Network acknowledges and respects the First Nations Custodians of the land where our offices stand, and where we work to help Australians. We pay respects to their Elders, past present and emerging, lore, customs and creation spirits. We recognise that these lands have always been places of ceremony, teaching, research and learning, and we acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples play in our community.
We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible environment where people and communities of all identities and backgrounds are accepted, safe and celebrated.
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