Stepfamilies! Seek First To Understand Before You Seek To Be Understood   by Jo Ball – The Stepfamily Coach

As
every person is unique so is every family. As unique as a family is, so
are their challenges, worries and successes. It's easy to blame a
particular person for particular 'bad' behaviours but it's important to
reflect on why the behaviour might be there in the first place.

Understanding the development process of a stepfamily    by Jo Ball

Stepfamilies
can feel overwhelming and complicated at times. Understanding their
development process helps you to understand what's going on and how to
deal with it. Read on to find out where your stepfamily is in it's
stage of development.

Part of The Stepfamily Coach approach is having families see themselves
as a team. To aid this I've developed The Stepfamily Development Model.
The model breaks down into four parts: getting going, growing, flowing
and glowing.

Stepparent – Feeling like the outsider   by Jo Ball – The Stepfamily Coach

Four
years ago I joined with my partner and his two children. In the
beginning it was lovely to have the children around. I was in the
'Getting Going' stage – the fantasy stage – and found family life easy,
getting along well with everyone.

As the months passed by I began to notice more and more how much of an
outsider I felt in their cosy trio. They had a history together, I
didn't. They knew each other's needs, I didn't. They knew the routines
backwards, I didn't. They knew how to get what they wanted from each
other, I didn't.