WEBINAR STARTS IN:

15 OCTOBER 2026, THURSDAY | 12PM-1:30PM SYDNEY AUSTRALIA (TIME)

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One parent has read everything about neurodiversity and already lined up a referral. The other sees a child who is shy, or strong willed, and no different from how they were at that age, and hears the word autism or ADHD as a verdict on their parenting or a stigma about to be attached to their child. 

Your job is not to decide whether the child is neurodivergent. You are not there to settle the diagnostic question, or to move one parent across to the other’s view. You are there to help two parents who love the same child have a conversation that has stopped being possible on their own.

This is harder than it looks. The neurotype question is rarely only about neurotype. Underneath it you often find information asymmetries, grief, fear of what a label will do to the child, a parent’s own undiagnosed history, and many other factors in dispute in the separation. 

What you will take away

This webinar gives you a way to hold the conversation that keeps the child at the centre and does not ask you to take a side on the diagnosis. You will leave able to:

Support the conversation without taking a position on the diagnosis.

Separate what each parent observes from what they interpret.

Treat one parent’s resistance as information rather than denial.

Keep the child's needs at the centre.

Recognise when the assessment dispute is not the real issue.

Who this is for

This webinar is for the practitioners who end up in the middle of these conversations:

  • Family dispute resolution practitioners
  • Family report writers and child consultants
  • Child contact service staff
  • Family lawyers
  • Mediators and conflict coaches working with separated parents

You do not need a background in autism or neurodivergence. The focus is on the conflict and the conversation.

About your trainer:

Dr Samantha Hardy is the founder of the Conflict Management Academy and the developer of Working with Neurodivergent Clients in Conflict, a professional training program for conflict resolution practitioners. She has worked in the field for more than thirty years as a practitioner, trainer, and researcher, with a background in law and dispute resolution. She received the Resolution Institute Award for Service to Dispute Resolution in 2021 and was named Conflict Coach of the Year in 2022.

Questions you might have

Will this tell me how to recognise autism in a child?
No. This is not assessment training. The webinar is about the conversation between the parents, not the diagnosis of the child.

I work with these families but I am not an FDRP. Is it still for me?
Yes. The conversation comes up for lawyers, report writers, contact service staff, and coaches as often as it does for FDRPs. The approach is the same.

What if one parent really is refusing something the child clearly needs?
The webinar deals with this directly. Holding the conversation well and naming a genuine concern for the child are not in tension. You will leave with a way to do both while keeping your impartiality.

REGISTER ME

Register for the webinar by clicking the link below. The webinar will be recorded so if you can’t attend live, you will be able to watch the recording later.