General Social Practice:

Parenting skills:
Empowering parents with knowledge about the following:
• Positive parenting styles
• Positive parenting practices
• Effective communication strategies
• Effective discipline strategies
• Children’s developmental stages and needs

Emotional support:  
Support to people dealing with stress and trauma
• Short term intervention
• Develop effective coping mechanisms
• Contain, process and resolve feelings of guilt, anger, denial, helplessness, and being overwhelmed.
• Provides emotional support  

Referrals:

• Assessment of alleged child abuse and referrals to the child care organisation
• Assessment and complete forms for old age homes
• Assist with grant applications

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Mediation during and after divorce:

Mediation is a non-adversarial way of reaching agreement on matters arising from divorce disputes. It is an alternative dispute resolution process. Mediation minimises fear and stress and its intention is to arrive at an amicable outcome. Family matters are mediated by an experienced and qualified third party in order to reach an agreement.

The following can be mediated:

• Parental rights and responsibilities

• Frustrating of contact of the other parent of significant others in the life of the minor child

• Contribution of child maintenance

• Care and contact disputes

• Court ordered mediations/Family Advocate referrals

• Grounds for divorce or reconciliation

• Child care, contact and maintenance issues during and post-divorce

• Any other divorce matters raised by parties during and after divorce

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Child assessment:

• School experiences

• Relationship with parents and siblings

• Child’s experience of parents marital relationship

• Attachment, focused on secure attachments and insecure attachments

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Facilitation in Family disputes:

Besides the fact that the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 in general underpins the importance of a conciliatory and non-confrontational approach to the settlement of child-centered disputes, it specifically refers to mediation as and appropriated means of dispute resolution. Family matters will be facilitated by experience third party.

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Parenting plans:

Parenting plans are utilised to provide clear guidelines to parents on how to exercise their parental rights and responsibilities. It is used in many instances where difficulty exists for parents to co-parent minor children. Parenting plans are mandatory before a divorce can be finalised, whenever a minor children were involved.

The parenting plan focus on the following areas:

• Children’s primary residence

• Contact between parent and child, other significant other persons in the children’s life

• Sharing of information relating to the children

• Parent’s attendance and involvement in children’s activities

• Joint decision making in major matters affecting the child

• Arrangements for specific occasions, e.g. birthdays and religion holidays

• A process of amending and revising parenting plan
• Future dispute resolution procedures to be followed

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Supervised contact:

To maintain the relationship between a parent and the minor children were the minor children might be at risk at a parent. To create a safe environment for the minor child to exercise contact with a specific parent.

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Forensic Assessments:

Investigations of suspicions of sexual abuse are a very complex and sensitive issue. We focus on confronting sexual abuse through a responsible, holistic approach. The role of the assessor is one of objective fact-finders. We work from the assumption that there are various possible explanations for the child’s behaviour and/or disclosure and that all possible hypothesis are tested

Care and contact Evaluations:

• Comprehensive assessment of children involved

• Home visits paid to residences of both parties

• Consultation with collateral sources pertaining to both parties

• Interactional analysis between both parties and the children involved

• Mediation sessions involving all parties

• Children’s primary residence

• Exercising parental rights and responsibilities

• Contact with parents and other significant others

• Views of the minor children

• Recommendations guided by the best interest of the minor child principle

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Substance abuse:

• Screening and assessment

• Motivational counselling (Individual and Family)

• Psycho-social report for voluntary rehabilitation centre admissions
• Rehabilitation centre applications

• Facilitation of admissions to treatment centres

• Aftercare services after completion of treatment centres programmes    

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Psychotherapy:

Traumatic events can be described as circumstances in which an individual experiences, witnesses of is confronted with an event that involves serious injury or threat. Responses to traumatic events entail intense fear, helplessness and horror.

Individual psychotherapy is offered to individuals:

• Are victims to abuse

• Struggle with everyday challenges

• Struggle with dependency and co-dependency

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