FDR Child Specialists – Introducing Fair Way’s expert team

By Will Story for the Family Advocate, Winter 2024

If you are a habitual Family Advocate reader you may have been following the changes to FDR mediation following the implementation of the Family Court (Supporting Children in Court) Legislation Act 2021 (“the Act”) which enables tamariki to have a stronger voice in Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) mediation.

To help bring the Act to life, a new Child Specialist role has been created for FDR suppliers. To be distinguished from the Voice of the Child role in FDR, Child Specialists have a wider brief and their role is to help parents and guardians understand each child’s feelings, views and experiences so parents can keep them squarely in focus during mediation.

I’m delighted to share that Fair Way has appointed a talented team of seven Child Specialists (a mixture of full and part time roles), to provide coverage for whānau around the motu. Their collective experience is impressive, and you can find out a bit about each of our talented team below.

Back row - left to right: Suzanne Alliston, Jessica Singh, Liz Cole, and Anna Walker
Front row – left to right: Frankie Cummings, Jamie Godfrey, and Kara Duncan-Hewitt

Anna Walker is a Senior Consultant Child and Family Psychologist from Christchurch. Anna has most recently been employed in the Child Protection team at Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ in a dual role as a Project Lead on Child Protection and Family Violence across the South Island. She provides section 133 and section 178 Specialist Court Reports (Expert Witness work) to the Family Court for the Ministry of Justice. Anna has worked in private practice for a number of years and has previously worked for the Ministry of Education and the University of Canterbury providing psychometric and psychological reports, as well as being an Overnight Supervisor at the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre. Anna has 20 years’ experience working with children. Being of Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tuwharetoa descent, Anna enjoys working with whānau Māori to support positive outcomes and experiences often under challenging circumstances and is comfortable with both Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pakeha worlds.

Suzanne Alliston, currently living in Christchurch but will eventually be based out of Nelson, is a Clinical Social Worker. Her most recent role has been in private practice as a therapist specialising in trauma and attachment difficulties. She is also an external supervisor. Suzanne is an ACC approved provider of counselling and assessor for mental injury. She has previously worked as Clinical Team Leader for the STOP Children’s Service (leading a team providing clinical assessment and treatment services to children and adolescents engaged in concerning and harmful sexual behaviour) as well as Clinical Team Leader at Barnardos (leading a team of clinicians and social workers in the delivery of therapy and social work) and has 25 years’ experience working therapeutically with children, young people, adults and family groups.

Jamie Godfrey is a Wellington based registered social worker and trained specialist child witness interviewer. For the past year, Jamie has been working as the National Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Manager for New Zealand Defence Force, but previously worked as a section 132 report writer, supervisor, practice leader, specialist child witness interviewer and social worker for many years at Oranga Tamariki. Jamie has sixteen years’ experience in statutory child protection working directly with children, young people and their whānau. 

Kara Duncan-Hewitt is a senior family therapist (Psychotherapy major) joining us from Hawke’s Bay and with expertise in the Stopping Family Violence sector, including providing national and international training. She has had various roles throughout her 29 years’ experience as a Counsellor, Children’s Advocate, Youth Worker and Youth Facilitator, as well as working within the stopping family violence sector with adult group and individual work, and training specialist practitioners in this field. Kara is an ACC approved provider of counselling for sensitive claims. Kara has vast experience working cross culturally (including with interpreters) to deliver trainings in multiple subjects including family dynamics, family violence, impacts of trauma, cultural considerations, abnormal psychology and the impacts of this on personalities. She also has experience mentoring and building teams. Kara is currently training teams to work as counsellors and facilitators with children and youth, as well as those working with participants of Men’s and Women’s Stopping violence programmes.

Liz Cole will be working from our Auckland office. Her most recent roles have been in clinical leadership in the family violence space. In this mahi Liz has worked with adults, youth and children. She has supervised clinical practice, specialised in overseeing children and youth services, and facilitated psycho-educational programmes. She also provides external supervision. Liz has served as a Care and Protection Resource Panel Member with Oranga Tamariki. She has had various roles throughout her vast 25 years’ experience including as a trainer and clinical manager and family therapist and children’s play therapist, following tertiary qualifications in education. Liz has also completed the Mediation Skills Intensive course through AMINZ.

Frankie Cummings is a qualified lawyer and Social Worker in Auckland. Her most recent role has been as a Youth Justice Social Worker for Oranga Tamariki. She has previously worked in the Community Social Work team at Stand Tū Māia, for the New Zealand Police, and as a lawyer for the Public Defence Service. Frankie has 13 years’ experience, the last 3 of which have been spent working solely with children after completing her Master of Applied Social Work (with First Class Honours).

Jessica Singh is a current FDR mediator for Fair Way as well as Parenting Through Separation Facilitator in Auckland. Jessica has her own practice as a Mediator and Counsellor. She is a registered Alcohol and Drug practitioner and an experienced family therapist/counsellor. She is also an accredited Restorative Justice Facilitator with a Family Violence specialist endorsement. As an accredited ACC provider, Jessica provides specialist counselling for survivors of child sexual abuse. She provides Clinical Supervision for registered Health Professionals as well as specialist Cultural Supervision to staff dealing with culturally diverse groups. Jessica has had many roles throughout her 20 years’ experience including as the Manager of Clinical Services at Relationships Aotearoa, Mental Health Clinical Leader in High and Complex Needs Services, Team Leader Odyssey House and as a service manager for intellectual disability. Jessica has vast experience working cross culturally and speaks multiple languages.

Collectively, our Child Specialists add another string to the very strong bow of FDR. The practice underlying FDR has grown immensely during its 10-year existence in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The introduction of FDR Child Specialists shifts the boundaries yet again – to enable FDR to come into its own as a world-leading forum for families to resolve their conflict in the best possible way, with the most positive impact on and empowerment of our tamariki. The possibilities here are endless, and I for one am very excited about what the future for family conflict resolution looks like in Aotearoa New Zealand.

About the author

Will Story BA LLB (will.story@fairwayresolution.com) is an experienced family lawyer (not practising) and Operations Manager of Family Services at Fair Way.