Plus One Hobart

Plus One Hobart brings you “Anxious Children in the Family Court Process: Do We Have Anything To Worry About?” with Presenter Mr Vincent Papaleo from Vincent Papaleo & Associates.

Mr Vincent Papaleo

Vincent Papaleo & Associates

Clinical & Forensic Experts

Specialising in Family Law and Post-Separation

Melbourne-Sydney-Canberra

Vincent Papaleo is an internationally recognised expert in the clinical aspects of Family Law.

Having commenced his career in the Dept of Child Psychiatry at the Austin Hospital, he moved into private practice, specialising in separated families.

He has over 30 years’ experience, both in practice, though also as court witness, trainer, and consultant.

He presents at events all over Australia and overseas, becoming a highly regarded contributor to professional development events. 

Children presenting with anxiety in Family Law proceedings are all too common, but this is not surprising.

Children from separated families are more likely to experience trauma and exposure to family violence and chronic and acute exposure to parental conflict, inconsistencies around parenting approach and child-parent emotional transfusion.

Children from separated families, understandably, often demonstrate symptoms of separation anxiety, school reluctance, and oppositional defiant disorder.

However, these symptoms are often weaponised by parents caught up in Family Law litigation and parents can show limited understanding of their origin.

An understanding of the aetiology of common child anxiety presentations can provide valuable insight, inform the Court about parenting practices, and give direction around not only intervention but parenting time.

Treatment of children in separated families with anxiety benefit from focusing on building resilience, finding solutions, and gradual exposure as compared to what happens in the Family Court arena where the child’s anxiety is often used to determine outcomes and so the anxiety is indulged and over empowered, not contained and managed.

Central to Vincent’s presentation will be the mantra children’s behaviour does not occur in isolation but rather occurs in relation to the actions and reactions of the people around them.

Vincent will also explore the importance of exposure in the treatment of all anxiety related conditions and with parents, the ability of parents to manage and tolerate their own anxiety, and not accommodate their child’s anxiety.