Men and Family Counselling and Consultancy’s managing director Simon Santosha shared his insight at The Woolshed in front of more than 60 people from the legal space and practitioners who work with families going through a separation or divorce.
Catholic Care Sandhurst director Rhonda Lawson-Street said the yearly conference covered the Bendigo and Shepparton region with the location alternating between the two each year.
‘‘It’s a really good way to have everyone who works from different professional perspectives to get a common understanding of how to get best results when working with people in separation conflict,’’ Ms Lawson-Street said.
‘‘What people would have taken away is a much more in-depth understanding of how to assist men not to become hostile and aggressive when going through separation and divorce in the family law process.’’
Catholic Care Sandhurst co-ordinates the Family Law Pathways network, a government initiative designed to bring together everyone who works with separated families.
Mr Santosha said the service involved lawyers, mediators, legal practitioners and social support services designed to help transition couples who were separating into having respectful co-parenting relationships.
‘‘It’s a very volatile time for a lot of couples, especially when children are involved.
‘‘The organisation is designed to bring everyone together to do professional development training to assist couples to separate respectfully,’’ he said.
Mr Santosha was the guest speaker at the conference, talking about his early intervention approach used to engage with separated men to better understand how they grieve and to be able to support them more effectively.
Mr Santosha addressed the limited services available for men and the difficulty practitioners can have when communicating with men in order to effectively prevent harm.
‘‘A lot of men are really struggling and are not communicating their struggles ... beyondblue statistics show one out of every seven men are depressed yet only 25 per cent of men reach out and ask for help,’’ he said.
‘‘The approach I take is an early intervention approach, trying to prevent harm and violence by engaging with the men very early on in the separation process.
‘‘The guys themselves won’t reach out for help — once we understand that men reach out differently to women, we can understand that the services have to be proactive, engage and ask the questions.’’
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