Strategies on communication, agreement on discipline – who spells out the rules and what the rules are – and on handling competing demands. It is just as important for couples to ensure that in a busy week there is time just for each other.

The six-week course covers

• the differences and uniqueness inherent in step families
• the need to let go of the past in order to devise mutual expectations, which requires good communication skills
• parents’ roles and challenges in the step family, and the need to establish positive biological and step-parent roles
• what children experience and how they cope in step families
• nurturing the couple bond and development of conflict resolution skills particular to the step family experience
• charting of step family stages and the building of new step family traditions.