Further seminars are now being offered of this highly regarded course.  Each course has limited numbers of participants.  Registration is allocated on a strictly first served basis.

The Law Commission for Dispute Resolution in the Family Court in its 2003 report stated that "It is vital that mediators be appropriately trained and supervised, and have the knowledge and skills necessary to work with Family Court clients. Enthusiastic amateurism is no substitute for the training and experience demanded by social and emotional complexities of Family Court cases".

The specific training recommended by the Law Commission is included in the AMINZ seminar. Each seminar will include a launch and opening address by Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier. Presenters include senior, experienced mediators working with families. The course will give participants practical tools to incorporate into their practices, is ideal for experienced mediators and includes:
• Family law including statutory processes, Family Court processes, case management and the role of counsel for the child and how to write agreements.
• CYFS and the police
• Confidentiality
• Codes of Ethics
• Family systems theory and child development
• Effects of separation and breakdown on families
• How to deal with highly emotional clients
• The impact of culture on mediating in families including working with Maori families
• Violence in families
• The operation of power
• Issues of access and capacity
• How to deal with unequal bargaining positions
• Intake and screening
• Child protection including the voice of the child in mediation
• Supervision
• Possibilities for structuring family mediation practice

Limited places are available for this course.

Presenters Include
Ann Edge MCR; PGDipBusAdmin (Disp Res); GDipBusStuds (Disp Res); TTC; FAMINZ

Ann is a Mediation Fellow and an AMINZ panel member. She has served on the AMINZ Council since 2006 and is currently Vice President. Ann has a Master of Conflict Resolution from La Trobe University, and a PGDipBusAdmin and GDipBusStuds in Dispute Resolution from Massey University. Ann was a mediator on the Family Court mediation pilot.

Ann is a trained primary teacher and has taught in most levels of the primary system. She has 15 years experience as a supervisor and adviser in early childhood education, was an early education adviser to Wellington City Council and was on the Wellington College of Education advisory committee on professional development in early childhood education. Ann was instrumental in the establishment of a national body to represent school-age child care and was the inaugural chair for 5 years and served on the board of that organisation for 15 years.

Ann currently works in family, business and education settings. Interests include dialogic approaches to conflict, cultural aspects of conflict, and language as the source of conflict and as the pathway to conflict transformation. A particular interest is listening, and the ways in which the listening qualities of conflict interveners alter the potential of their intervention.

Denise Evans LLB, AAMINZ ANZIM
Denise has practiced law for over last twenty years primarily in Family and Employment Law. She was an associate and later a partner in the firm of Maude & Miller from 1993 to 1998 and then established her own practice, The Law Store in Porirua employing twelve staff including solicitors and support staff. Denise sold this practice in 2006 and is now a sole practitioner operating from Raumati. She in on the list to receive referrals through the Court as lawyer for children under both the Care of Children Act 2004 and the Children Young Person's & Their Families Act 1989. She has appeared in the High, District and Family Courts as well as numerous specialist tribunals including the Employment Tribunal and ERA. Denise has completed a Post Graduate diploma through Massey University in alternative dispute resolution and currently practices as a mediator in addition to maintaining her interest in family law. Denise is working towards a Master's Degree in conflict resolution. Recent travels have included spending time at Cape Town University looking at the Truth & Reconciliation Commission influences on dispute resolution in South Africa and looking at dispute resolution practices in Peru and Brazil.

Helen Ridley FAMINZ (med), MMgt(Disp. Res.), MEd(Adult Ed), DipBusStuds(Disp. Res.), BMus(Hons), DipTchg, Cert.Professional Supervision (Weltec), Child Protection Certificate (Child Protection Services)
Helen is an experienced mediator, facilitator and trainer, and a qualified professional supervisor. She is a Fellow and current Panel member of AMINZ. Helen runs an independent mediation/facilitation and supervision practice in the Wellington region, working mainly in areas of family, health and disability, workplace, restorative justice, education and public sector community consultation. She teaches part time on the dispute resolution programme at Massey.
Helen has extensive involvement in working with families, and in the provision of support and access to services in the disability sector. She was a mediator for the Family Court Pilot programme in NZ, and has been a long-term facilitator for Wellington Restorative Justice Services, and for WEAV violence intervention programmes in Wellington. She has worked on Best Practice advisory groups for both organisations, with a particular interest in practice and research concerning mediation within contexts of family violence, and the role of children in mediation processes.

Tau Huirama
Tau Huirama is of Maniapoto and Waikato heritage and was raised in Ngaruawahia. Tau has worked in child protection and family violence prevention for the past 20 years in the community and justice sectors. His past roles include counselling and group work, and for sexually abused children, group facilitation for men who have been violent towards their children and partners. He has managed community agencies and has worked within the prison system. For the past 10 years Tau has held national managers positions and currently he co - leads Jigsaw with Liz Kinley, this organisation is child centred and family focused. Jigsaw supports 34 agencies nationwide working within the child abuse sector. Tau will be presenting only in Wellington.

Gae Neill LLB (Canterbury) ATCL (Trinity College)

Gae has worked as a specialist family lawyer for some years in both Christchurch and the UK, having trained under former Children’s Commissioner Laurie O’Reilly and with Family Court Judge June Johnston. She is a nationwide Trainer and Facilitator for Skylight in the areas of Grief, Loss, Change, Transition and Resilience including the secondary school’s “Travellers” Programme for adolescents who are experiencing challenge related to significant life events such as family separation. The “Traveller’s Programme forms part of the Ministry of Health’s Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy. Many years as a volunteer Youthline phone counsellor,Training and Selection Supervisor proved to be an invaluable background for employment as Youthline Wellington’s Education Co-ordinator over three years until the end of 2008. In this role Gae provided training for volunteers and outreach programmes for the youth community, liaising regularly with the youthworker networks, education, socialwork, school counselling, mental and sexual health, family violence, abuse, policy making and refugee sectors. She set up Youthline Wellington’s Community Ongoing Education Programme, facilitated workshops for students in mainstream and alternative schools and the tertiary sector, for the Ministry of Health and also provided training for The Families Commission. Following this, as a contracted senior youthworker for Youthline, she conducted workshops across the North Island to provide a Youth Voice to inform policy development in Youth Sexual Health for the Ministry of Health and has also been employed for many years as a part-time Medical Practice Manager. She contributes to various advisory groups and the focus of much of her training and work with children, young people and their families has been on healthy communication and relationships, understanding wellbeing and resilience, developing strategies for coping better with life challenges, harm reduction and youth development. Gae is Skylight’s Lead-Facilitator and Team Leader for the Justice Department's course "Parenting Through Separation”, which she has facilitated regularly since it was rolled out nationally nearly 4 years ago. Gae enjoys and values the challenges and opportunities that working with a hugely diverse range of people and needs provides.

Daryl Gregory (B.A.)
Daryl is of Tainui descent. His mother is from Waikato, Ng?ti Wh?wh?kia, and his father is from Hauraki, Ng?ti Maru. Daryl was born and raised in Ng?ruaw?hia. Since leaving the army in 1984, he has worked in the community of Christchurch where he is the founder and current Managing Director of He Waka Tapu, a Maori health and social services agency. Daryl is also on the Board of Directors for CASA (Clinical Advisory Services Aotearoa) CASA is a nation-wide New Zealand mental health consultancy company, with a focus on suicide. CASA is one of New Zealand's largest private sector teams of psychologists and a growing number of health professionals. He is known for his work in the field of family violence, sexual abuse, alcohol and drugs. He has been a consultant, tutor, and trainer for government departments as well as Polytechnics and University in a range of fields. He is currently continually looking at creative ways of engaging with whanau around moving towards healthy, non-violent lifestyles.

Additional presenters will be announced in due course.