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Family Life

Hello and Welcome to FamilyAid!

Free Family Counselling

FamilyAid began in 2013 offering free family counselling services. Most of the support I have given is centred around debt and family separation. I do this in a volunteer role as a free service.

– use my skills and life experience to help families;
– help families to cope with challenges that often cause family breakdowns or lead to crises,
– signpost families to additional free help resources for debt, bereavement, counselling;
– support families to recognise their own emotional and physical health needs;
– support family members to manage issues such a child behaviour and wider family relationships more effectively;

Almost 99% of the people I have spoke to are unaware of where or how to find help. I try to sign post people and help with organising additional advice and support. So far I have helped two people from fixating on suicide as an answer. In both cases, it was the price of a few stamps and learning how to deal with debt in a friendly organised way. Mental health is the first thing thats affected by debt or family separation.

Depression and anxiety are tremendous burdens to live with, but there is so much support that can help make a huge difference. So thats where I fill a little gap and sign post people and be available to listen.

My Story

In 2013, my life was as close to perfect as it could get. I had a great partner and two wonderful children. I was a full time stay at home dad.

Ok, what happened? What changed?

Well, in 2014 that dream family life turned out to be less than dreamy. In short, I spent the next 5 years in the Family Court (16 appearances) trying to protect a relationship with my children. During that time when I did have our children, I was literally on my own and they depended on me for everything. It was far from easy. I even volunteered for over a year in my children’s nursery just to feel competent.

For me, going through the family court was a very difficult and disappointing experience. Looking for help and support made me realise the great suffering the current system promotes in child custody disputes – anxiety, isolation, sleep depravation, self loathing, mud slinging etc – it is horrendous and I can only sympathise with those that couldn’t cope, especially when solicitors and barristers want to win at ‘all costs’ regardless of what is morally right for the children, so that means destroying one parent until the other parents ‘wins’. That seemed lost on CAFCASS and NYAS.

But, as parents I believe we can all learn and support each other, through real life experience – so I decided to build this website to help promote and signpost useful information to help us grow to be the best, most fun, fully engaged (child first) parents we can be.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Paul

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