Step- bonus- or co-parenting families are families that are formed when men or women with children repartner after they have separated, divorced or lost their former partner to death.

Counselling/therapy can be helpful in many different ways:

•    It normalises the thoughts and feelings with which you may be struggling in the stepparenting experience.

•   It confirms that you are not bad, stupid or crazy if you have times when you are overcome with feelings of resentment, anger or hatred toward your partner’s ‘ex’, your own ‘ex’, your partner and/or your stepchildren.

•   It gives you the opportunity to talk (and cry) about every painful aspect of your journey.

•   It helps separate the things in your situation that you can change from the things that you can’t change.

•  It facilitates greater awareness around your issues as well as greater self-awareness. (You can discover all sorts of interesting things about yourself!)

•  It can be your life-saver in times of crisis.

•  It gives you practical tools to help you deal with your situation.

•  It enhances your problem-solving skills.

•  It provides you with emotional support.

•  It helps you explore your options.

•  It assists you in making choices.

•  It can point you in the right direction if you require other types of assistance, such as psychiatric help, financial advice, court interventions etc.

For the past 4 years I supported the multitude of step-and blended families around the globe through a wonderful interactive website - The Step Stop.

Due to increasing demands on my time in my various other roles, I recently amalgamated my TSS site with The Stepfamily Association of South Australia site and can now be contacted in my role of stepfamily consultant, counsellor and coach via

The Step Stop - whilst now a read-only site – still provides  loads of helpful stepparenting information, articles, people’s stories, forum posts where site members shared their concerns, fears, joys, hopes and successes. Feel free to visit and enjoy.