Media

Radio/TV/VIDEO

2018 - Watch Timothy being interviewed on “The Male Gayz”; a web series from TVNZ OnDemand. Extracts from Episode 2: Relationships and Dating. Kiwi comedians Chris Parker and Eli Matthewson navigate the tricky world of romantic rainbow connections with guest same-sex Relationship Specialist Timothy McMichael. Courtesy of Television New Zealand and Little Empire Podcasts

2018 - Listen to Timothy being interviewed on RNZ with Wallace Chapman talking about the introduction of the app Our Family Wizard® to support separating and separated Mums and Dads, rolled out on the 1st February 2018 by the Family Works Resolution Service.

2017 - Listen to Timothy being interviewed on RNZ with Jessie Mulligan talking about Family Mediation at Christmas time.

2017 - Listen to FWRS Manager, Timothy McMichael giving a sermon about supporting separating and separated families at the Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church.

2017 - Watch Timothy being interviewed on 中華電視網 World TV talking about Family Mediation.

Publications/articles/Research

Click here to a January 2022 article from the UK Family Mediation Council about Family Mediaiton in Aotearoa.

Click here to a May 2020 article in the Stuff.co.nz about domestic violence during the lockdown.

Click here to an April 2020 article in the Stuff.co.nz about lockdown is not the time to be setting high goals.

Click here to a January 2019 article in North&South magazine about The Family Court.

Click here to read a May 2018 article from Resolution Institute about the Rise and Rise of Parenting Apps

Click here to read a February 2018 article in the Stuff.co.nz about the launch of an app for co-parenting families. Check out the video here!

Click here to read an article  I wrote in 2017 which appeared in the New Zealand Herald Canvas magazine on Christmas Eve. 

Click here to access my most recent (2018) published research on ‘Engaging indigenous Maori and inward migrating Asian professionals into a Pakeha (White European) dominated Balint community in New Zealand' in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.   

Click here read a 2016 article in the Manukau Courier about my work supporting families with the Family Works Resolution Service. 

Click here to read a 2015 article on the supervision of Family Mediators and FDR Providers, published, with appreciation and acknowledgement to the NZ Law Society,  in the New Zealand Law Society journal 'The Advocate'.

Click here to read a 2012 article where I argued that many long-term commitments end not through death of a partner but by a partner terminating the relationship. The article set out some of the general principles of The Property Relationships Act 1976 which divides up the assets, and previewed the anticipation of the arrival of the establishment of Alternative Dispute Resolution Centres (ARDCs) which will help couples work out an agreement without recourse to the Family Court.

Click here to read a 2011 Mediator Profile article and published, with appreciation and acknowledgement to the NZ Law Society,  in the New Zealand Law Society journal 'The Advocate'.

Click here to read my published chapter from 2000 in ‘Issues in Therapy with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Clients'. Edited by Charles Neal and Dominic Davies

International/NATIONAL SPEAKING & Presentations

September 2024 - The Law Association - Auckland

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

This session will focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), covering key aspects of the FDR process and mediation, including collaborative andtraditional approaches. Explore RP and COCA/FDR mediation models, arbitration, and effective strategies for recording enforceable settlements and court orders. Enhance your practicalinsights and strategies to refine your ADR expertise and better serve your clients.

June 2023 - AFCC International - Boston

FROM MIDDLE EARTH: WHAT COULD BE NEW AND SAFER FOR TAMARIKI?

Aotearoa New Zealand, by virtue of its isolation, has often had to be innova tive in the way the community works, and the way that services are developed and delivered. The family court is no different, and now more than ever, everyone working in the family justice system must be working harder and better to bring new and safe practices for our Tamariki children. By hearing from three different family justice professionals, a judge, psychologist and mediator/parenting coordinator, participants will take a journey that stimulates, encourages, and challenges practice so we’re all more fit and ready for the work at hand.

September 2021

PARENTING CO-ORDINATION - THE LATEST CHAPTER IN FAMILY JUSTICE TO SUPPORT PARENTS TO PUT CHILDREN AT THE CENRE OF THEIR DECISION MAKING

August 2021 - AMINZ Conference - Rotorua

MANAGING THE PARADOX - SHIFTING FROM AN ADR ART FORM TO AN ADR SCIENCE - OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE AND INTO TE REO MAORI

How do we - as DR practitioners here in Aotearoa, navigate the paradox of moving ADR practice from an art form to science based practice, when simultaneously, we also need to think about moving our critical thinking from a science pakeha model to a Te Ao Maori art form - without feeling too uncomfortable?

The presenter will proffer a route for participants, and by way of illustration, will share some of his, at times, uneasy journey as a white cis male from the UK arriving in Aotearoa back in 2007.

The workshop will draw on the book “The Conflict Paradox” by Bernard Mayer and on the Tuhono mode of Mediation developed in Tairawhiti, Aotearoa.

June 2021 - Resolution Institute - Annual Conference - Sydney/Virtual /Hybrid - Resilience and Reinvention.

FAMILY LAW DISPUTES: SOLVING THE PROBLEM IN THE MOMENT

We may often think about whether conflict resolution is an art or science, but we perhaps think less about the nature of conflict, per se, and whether, as I sometimes wonder, what about conflict itself – is that an art or a science.

How all of us as DR practitioners view this question, and then dance with possible answers, will in no small degree, impact on how we work with those in conflict, in an attempt, occasionally in vain, to support them to resolve their own experienced conflict. 

June 2019 - FRSA Child Inclusive Practice Forum - Darwin

HOW EMERGING APPS ENSURE PARENTS TAKE ACCOUNT OF THIER CHILDREN’S THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, WANTS AND NEEDS.

This interactive workshop will explore the implications of communication apps in divorce or separation cases. Participants will learn how the use of mobile applications, either when mandated or voluntarily used, reduce litigation and improve co-parent communication.

Participants will learn how parents, children and professionals utilise its features to manage and document more effective communication. Legal and Mental Health Practitioners will explore how these points can assist in overcoming communication issues that can be so harmful to children.

August 2018 - AFCC Australian Chapter - Annual Conference - Adelaide

CONSULTATIVE SUPPORT FOR FAMILY JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS

Lawyers, Judges, Court reporters or writers, Family Mediators or Psychologists commonly receive some kind of supervision, peer review or consultative support as part of their annual registration, for ongoing going professional development and quite possibly for their sanity and personal well-being.

While many have heard of, and use, work place or  clinical supervision,  Balint Groups are not  so well known.  Balint Groups have been around for 50 year or more and are the primary way that GP’s receive their Peer Group Supervisor; indeed participation in a Balint group is recommended by the Australian and New Zealand Royal Colleges of General Practitioners. Balint groups can also be an excellent environment for Family Justice professionals to obtain peer support and continuing professional credit points, but become a group where practitioners enjoy a secure, confidential environment to look at those ‘heart sink’ cases. 

This interactive workshop offers a brief introduction to the theory and application of a Balint group model of peer supervision

June 2018 - AFCC Annual Conference - Washington DC

DEVELOPING A FAMILY MEDIATION SERVICE IN A WESTERN NEW ZEALAND FAMILY COURT JURISDICTION

Family mediation services play a valuable role in supporting sepa- rating and separated parents and helping guardians resolve dis- agreements about day to day care before they head to court. This workshop will explain how New Zealand has successfully devel- oped a family mediation service against a backdrop of economic and political change. With well over 3,000 cases completed in the past three years, the presenters will be sharing material from their researched, finely tuned family mediation service for participants to take into their own jurisdictions and practices.

September 2017 - International Balint Federation - Oxford International Conference - Oxford, UK.

BRINGING SEXUAL and GENDER DIVERSITY CASES AND DIVERSE SEXUALITY AND GENDER OF GROUP MEMBERS AND LEADERS INTO THE WORLD OF BALINT.

Based on his experience of running 10 groups over the past 5 years, and his participation in one intensive each year for the past 4 years, the presenter will share some of his experiences of coming from a sexuality minority background, and how his experience of even the subtlest, and probably unintended heteronormative assumptions have impacted on his work as a Balint Leader and as a Balint group member.

The presenter will share some ideas about making Balint groups more appealing to participants from sexuality minorities.

Using some sharing of research data, fun role plays, and earnest conversation, it is hoped that participants will feel more at ease with cases of a sexuality diverse and gender diverse nature being worked in Balint Groups, and will also reflect more on what might need to be done to make participation in Balint groups more appealing to potential members coming from sexual minority/gender diverse backgrounds.

July 2016 - American Balint Society - 3rd National Meeting - Chicago, USA

SUCCESSFULLY, OR NOT, ENGAGING INDIGENOUS MAORI AND INWARD MIGRATING ASIAN PROFESSIONALS INTO A PAKEHA (WHITE EUROPEAN) DOMINATED BALINT COMMUNITY IN NEW ZEALAND 

How can the established predominately Pakeha (white European) Balint community in New Zealand more successfully engage both indigenous populations of both Maori and Pacifica origin into Balint work, and what is the existing Balint community doing to address the lack of Asian members of the Balint community in New Zealand, at a time when Asian health professionals are being recruited into the Health sector at an increasingly high rate in comparison to white European entrants to the profession – currently 3:1.

Why is the Balint model so white?

Can a model based, albeit increasingly loosely, on Western Freudian analytic theories even work with differing cultures?

By trying to encourage, no matter how subtlety, new entrants into Balint work, are Balint leaders in fact guilty of perpetuating even the most subtle form of further colonisation?

By presenting these questions, it is hoped the audience will be able to reflect on both the challenges and opportunities in reaching out to groups different to our own, to see what can be done to allow new entrants to benefit from all that participant in Balint work offers, whist not loosing sight of the uniqueness which each person can bring.

At the end of this presentation, it is hoped Balint leaders will feel more confident in reaching out to a wider ethic and cultural diaspora within their local populations, and encourage them to enter the exciting world of the Balint group.