Speaker Session:
Taming the Tempest: Working with High-Conflict Emotions in a Family Dispute Resolution Context
About David Stebbing
Psychologist
B.A, M.Ed, PgDip Child & Family Psych, MNZPSY Registered Psychologist
David is a Registered Psychologist with a Postgraduate Diploma in Child and Family Psychology (PgDip Child and Family Psych) from the University of Canterbury.
He has over 20 years of experience in the assessment and treatment of a range of psychological problems affecting tamariki / children, mātātahi / young people, adults, couples and families.
Although he has a very diverse practice these days, he has a particular interest in the areas of couple and whānau therapy, plus adolescent and adult therapy as related to anxiety and/or mood disorders, or individuals looking to address more existential concerns and/or grief and loss. Furthermore, he provides supervision/well-check services to the police, family lawyers and members of the judiciary.
For much of his career, David has provided therapeutic support to families involved in Family Court proceedings, and in more recent years, particuarly for cases identified by the court as especially complex. He is also part of a group of senior psychologists who have, with assistance from Professor Lynn Greenberg, and utilising her work, adapted an intervention (FIT - Families in Transition) for local use. This evidence-based approach is designed to be used in cases where a resist/refuse dynamic is entrenched for a child/children and one of their parents.
Taming the Tempest: Working with High-Conflict Emotions in a Family Dispute Resolution Context
David will present a framework for understanding the emotional roots of high-conflict family disputes, explaining how and why these conflicts arise, and offering strategies for navigating this challenging terrain. He will introduce several practical techniques to help parties manage their difficult emotions and suggest methods for each of them to avoid the escalation of tensions during negotiations.