Bringing Science To Separation
So Children Can Flourish
Sponsored by:
What are we doing to help children through parental separation?
Gathering together the UK's leading voices
A one day conference, 6th June 2025
Mary Ward House, London
Speaker Biographies
Dr Angharad Rudkin MA(Oxon), Clinical Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, OnlyMums & Dads Director of Training,
Dr Angharad Rudkin has 25 years of experience of working with children and their families. She has co-authored a number of books for children and parents, including the 'Split Survival Kit', a book for children about coping with divorce. Dr Angharad was a relationship expert for the Metro for 9 years and continues to regularly appear on radio and TV to discuss child mental health and parenting. She has consulted with Government bodies as well as private organisations around child well-being and lectured at the University of Southampton for many years.
His Honour Stephen Wildblood KC , 3PB Barristers
Stephen Wildblood KC was called to the Bar at the age of 21, having graduated in law from Sheffield University. He practised as a specialist family barrister for 27 years with a well-established family team in Bristol, as both junior and then, from 1999, in silk. Stephen began sitting as a part-time judge at the age of 37 and was then appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2004. In 2007 he took a full-time appointment to the Circuit bench. From 2013, he sat as a Circuit Judge in Devon and Cornwall, hearing family, civil and criminal cases. In 2013 Stephen was appointed as the Designated Family Judge for Bristol and the surrounding counties; in that role, he heard all types of family cases, in particular those concerning Financial Remedies, ToLATA, Private Law Children and Public Law Care. He also supported and pioneered many initiatives to help litigants in person.He is now working with the highly respected consultant clinical psychologist, Dr Freda Gardner, offering non court-based assistance to families who might otherwise find themselves involved in Family Court proceedings.
Ellie Johnston, Head of Counselling, Spurgeons
Ellie is a children's, adults, couple's counsellor and psychosexual therapist. Ellie has worked across the education sector, the NHS and for the last 8 years has been working for a local and national charity, developing and leading counselling and support services. Ellie has a BA Hon. in counselling, a certificate in counselling children, a PGCert in Leadership and Management, a diploma in coaching and mentoring, diploma in clinical supervision and a MSc in Psychosexual Therapy. Ellie teaches CPCAB counselling level 2 and 4, has a private practice and consults for a national children and young people's counselling charity. In recent years Ellie has done additional training in acceptance and commitment therapy, transactional analysis and emotionally focused therapy. Ellie has worked with many families impacted by relationship break down, finding ways forward for the whole family.
Kate Daley, Co-Founder amicable
Kate Daly is one of the UK’s leading experts on divorce, separation, and family law reform. A Divorce Specialist, certified Relationship Counsellor, and co-founder of amicable — the award-winning online legal service — Kate helps couples and separated parents navigate separation more positively. Inspired by her own challenging divorce, she founded amicable to change the way people experience separation. Kate is a regular commentator on BBC, Sky News, ITV, and other major outlets, and hosts The Divorce Podcast, where she explores relationships, separation, and co-parenting with leading experts.
Hoolly Cooper, Marketing Lead, amicable
Holly Cooper is the Marketing Lead at amicable, where she’s passionate about building brands that drive positive social change. She holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Exeter and has expertise across marketing strategy, brand development, digital marketing, advertising, content, and podcast production. At amicable, Holly leads the brand’s evolution and oversees the marketing team, helping people navigate separation with dignity and support.
Carlie Norris, Family Mediator
Carlie Norris trained with the Family Mediators Association and is a qualified Family Mediator. She has vast experience in Interpersonal Mediation, Restorative Practice, Restorative Justice, and Family Group Conferencing and delivers training to Local Authorities on Restorative Approaches. Carlie conducts mediations on all issues, including children, finances and property.
Anne Barlow, Emeritus Professor of Family Law and Policy, Exeter Law School.
Anne Barlow, FAcSS, is Professor Emeritus of Family Law and Policy at the University of Exeter Law School. She has led a number of funded socio-legal research projects on aspects of family law and justice, including Mapping Paths to Family Justice and Creating Paths to Family Justice on non-court dispute resolution and Healthy Relationship Transitions (HeaRT) which focused on the experiences of child-inclusive mediation. She has served as the Academic Member of the Family Justice Council (2011 – 2015) and was a member of the Government’s Task Force on Family Mediation (2014). She has published widely in the field and co-authored Mapping Paths to Family Justice: Resolving Family Disputes in Neo-Liberal Times (Palgrave, 2017) (with Rosemary Hunter, Janet Smithson and Jan Ewing) which was awarded the Hart-SLSA book prize 2018. More recently, with Jan Ewing, she co-authored Children’s Voices, Family Disputes and Child-Inclusive Mediation (BUP, 2024).
.jpg)
Dr Jan Ewing, Cambridge University
Dr Jan Ewing is an Assistant Professor in Law, a Fellow of Homerton College and Deputy Director of the Cambridge Family Law Centre at the University of Cambridge. Jan’s research interests lie in children’s rights to be heard in the decision-making when parents separate, particularly when parents settle arrangements without going to court. Jan is a member of the Family Solutions Group, which was set up by Sir Stephen Cobb in 2020. The group considers how to improve the experience of children and families before an application is made to the family court. She is also an invited member of the Family Justice Council’s ‘Voice of the Child Working Group’, which was set up in 2024 to advise the Family Justice Council on enhancing children’s participation within the Family Justice System. Jan was formerly a family law solicitor. When in private practice, she was a member of the Family Law Panel and Children Panel and was a trained mediator.
Helen Adam, Family Mediator
As well as being a founding partner of Wells Family Mediation Helen is also involved in family policy work.  She was the mediator representative on the Private Law Working Group and in 2020, was invited to set up and chair the Family Solutions Group. Its report “What about me?”, focusing on the needs of the child following family separation, was published later that year.  Helen continues to chair the Family Solutions Group and their paper “Language Matters” was published in September 2022 and ‘A Child’s Right to Matter’ in November 2023.  Helen is a regular speaker on the need to reframe support for families following separation to be less adversarial and more child-focussed.  She delivered the John Cornwell memorial lecture at the Family Mediators’ Association conference in 2021, and the Bridget Lindley memorial lecture at the Family Justice Council conference in 2022. Helen was awarded ‘Family Mediator of the Year’ and ‘Child-Inclusive Mediator of the Year’ at the National Mediation Awards in 2022. Helen’s clear and unshakeable professional goal is to support parents, where safe to do so, to handle their separation in a way which enables them to cooperate as parents for the years ahead, to the lasting benefit of their children.