BC Parenting Coordination Services

We provide conflict resolution guidance to parents faced with parenting disagreements. Parents may request process guidance within the parenting coordination mandate, with all communications conducted transparently and with notice to both parents. Through tailored online mediation sessions, we help parties reach agreements, fostering a cooperative parenting environment. If family violence is too high for using video sessions, we can begin with audio only to save PC fees from repeating information. Our approach emphasizes open communication and mutual respect without blame, significantly reducing tensions and facilitating better co-parenting practices.

We understand that high-conflict co-parenting requires deep personal management and skill-building. Where expressly authorized by court order or agreement, and with appropriate written consents, the Parenting Coordinator may engage in limited, transparent communication with a parent’s mental health professional solely for the purpose of supporting the parent’s participation in the parenting coordination process.

Our communication with your therapist is limited and purpose-driven: it is solely focused on supporting your successful, future-oriented engagement in the PC process. This means we may seek strategic insight into how we, as the PC, can best coach you to overcome behavioral obstacles, manage emotional reactivity, and consistently apply the co-parenting rules designed to benefit your child.

The Parenting Coordinator does not review therapeutic records, personal history, or diagnostic information, and does not provide treatment or assessment. To ensure this focus, we operate with full transparency: you are always invited to participate in any call, guaranteeing that communication remains strictly confined to optimizing the PC process and building genuine trust.

The Parenting Coordinator may review communications for the limited purpose of enforcing agreed communication protocols. Where repeated non‑compliance requires intervention, time spent providing corrective process guidance may be billed and, where authorized, re‑apportioned. PC fees may be reapportioned to the party who increases the cost of services by repeated corrections as authorized under appointment order and agreements. The goal is to improve communication to build a stronger, unified approach to parenting.

We assist parents by mediating disagreements  that remain unresolved after coparents attempt to resolve them themselves using OFW,  and the Communication Agreement.  We often use "shuttle mediation", by speaking separately with each parent to obtain their perspective on the issue, and then we help each parent with making a further proposal and a counter proposal.  Managing emotions leads to flexible thinking and solutions!  Take the other parent's perspective into consideration and always decide only based on your children's best interests is the unique focus of PC work. Read more: PC v Mediation and Neutral v Impartial.

PC work starts where the parents are at, and builds on the basic expectation of respectful co-parenting written communication.  Parents build up to Zoom meetings, to efficiently and effectively manage issues and create systems such as for future parenting time trades or scheduling activities.  

Most issues are resolved by consensus and we use our legal drafting skills to provide the parents with written agreements that they can rely on and enforce.  

Parents may engage in consensus‑based discussions regarding parenting issues, including travel, subject to the limits of the Parenting Coordinator’s authority and any applicable court orders.

Where consensus cannot be reached and where authorized under the Family Law Act and the appointing order, the Parenting Coordinator may issue a written determination limited to the implementation of existing parenting arrangements, grounded in the statutory best‑interests factors set out in s. 37 of the Family Law Act.

Determinations are reviewable under s. 19 of the Act.  No Determinations can be made on issues like changing an Order for guardianship, changing parental responsibilities, substantially changing parenting time or relocation.  For liability concerns around child abduction, the PC will not make a determination regarding international travel. 

A Determination follows the rules of natural justice, with each parent having notice of the issue and an understanding of process when they make their submissions.  The PC will make a written decision in the best interests of the children that can be filed in the Court and enforced as if it was an Order.  

The process is usually much more affordable, quicker, private, and lower stress than returning to court, and court might not resolve these issues or spend as much time on them.  The Parenting Coordinator applies the existing Parenting Plan, statutory criteria, and relevant legal authority to the specific implementation issue before them. We spend the time required to research decisions in your child's best interests, with the benefit of 28 years of experience and training focused in family law.  Helping families reach resolutions with minimal stress and expense is in everyone’s best interest.