Rewriting the Script: How New Ways For Families helps parents find their own way to better communication

The May edition of Coaching Today, the professional journal of the British Association for Counselling, carries an article by Tuck-Chee Phung, one of our long-standing New Ways For Families coaches.

Tuck-Chee gives a priceless insight into the interaction between coach and client from the coach’s perspective, and the rewards for both in working together to gain the skills and confidence to navigate fraught interactions between separated parents.

Writing for a readership of fellow counselling professionals Tuck Chee also offers important feedback that Shared Parenting Scotland can share with prospective clients considering signing up to the course.

New Ways for Families was devised by High Conflict Institute in California and has been adapted for offer in Scotland and across the UK since 2021. The full course, including 1:1 online sessions with an accredited coach, has recently been supported by the Scottish Government for low income participants and also for veterans through a separate stream of funding.

Shared Parenting Scotland believes the course empowers participants to take more control of their communication with their former partner, ideally allowing them to find a way to co-parent without battling in court.

Tuck-Chee writes, “The tasks are to manage emotions, especially difficult feelings such as anger, fear and vulnerability; to learn self-regulatory behaviour so that communication and expression are less reactive and more considered.”

Tuck-Chee draws his insight from work with 12 “learners”, mothers and fathers, over a three and a half year period. “The aim is to model co-operation, address difficulties respectfully, acknowledge feelings, and experience being seen and heard. … “There were important moments of insight and clarity, and such moments of illumination brought a newfound  sense of empowerment as they saw how the four sets of skills could be usefully applied in many areas of their lives. I feel privileged and humbled to be working with individuals in such challenging circumstances.”

Shared Parenting Scotland is indebted to Tuck-Chee not only for his contribution as a coach but also his commitment to the programme by sharing it with his professional colleagues. We are also grateful to Diane Parker, Editor of Coaching Today, for allowing us to share the full article, which is available here

This article first appeared in the April 2026 issue of Coaching Today, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.  ©️BACP 2026.