Lead Through Law, Culture, and Compassion
Where Justice Meets Wellness
At Gowthorpe Therapists, we believe that law and healing are not opposites — they are partners. In the world of high-conflict divorce, where emotional pain often collides with legal process, this partnership becomes essential.
Across my career — from Blue Sky Family Care and Bayfield Treatment Centres to the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, Memorial University, and the Trillium Foundation — I have worked at the delicate intersection of law, psychology, and human behaviour. In every role, my goal has been to ensure that justice serves human well-being, not just legal outcomes.
When Conflict Becomes the System
Families in crisis don’t just experience conflict at home — they encounter it in the systems meant to help them. Adversarial family law processes can unintentionally amplify fear, shame, and mistrust, particularly for children caught in the middle of parental disputes. Over time, the system itself can begin to mirror the very dynamics it is trying to resolve.
This is where therapeutic jurisprudence becomes essential. By recognizing that every legal rule, hearing, and decision carries emotional weight, we can reshape family law practices into spaces that promote clarity, accountability, and repair rather than escalation.
When lawyers, clinicians, judges, and social workers share this lens, outcomes begin to shift.
Keeping Children at the Centre of Family Law Decisions
For more than twenty years as a clinical member of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, I have witnessed how easily children’s voices can be overshadowed in high-conflict cases. Children experience legal conflict differently than adults — through their bodies, their attachments, and their sense of safety.
A truly child-centred approach to family law prioritizes emotional security, relational stability, and the child’s lived experience. When children feel heard and protected, healing can begin. When parents are supported to understand the emotional dimensions of conflict, even long-standing disputes can move toward resolution.
Children are not collateral to conflict. They are the reason the system must work better.
Law as a Framework for Healing
In my practice at Gowthorpe Therapists, I bring together statutory authority, clinical insight, and organizational leadership to support families through these transitions. Our approach is trauma-informed, child-centred, and collaborative — helping parents and professionals navigate conflict with clarity, compassion, and courage.
We believe that effective family law outcomes require more than compliance. They require emotional intelligence, ethical clarity, and an understanding of how legal decisions ripple through families over time. Wellness is not separate from justice — it is one of its truest measures.
A Call for Systems That Heal
When law and therapy work together, families can begin to rebuild trust — not only in each other, but in the systems designed to protect them. In this space between structure and compassion, justice becomes something more than a verdict or order. It becomes a process that supports healing, preserves dignity, and strengthens the human spirit.
This is where meaningful resolution lives.
About the Author
Sharlene Weitzman, MSW, RSW, CPT-S, LLM
Senior Therapist & Head of Legal Services,
Gowthorpe Therapists
Sharlene Weitzman is a clinician, legal scholar, and educator specializing in high-conflict divorce, children’s rights, and therapeutic jurisprudence. With over two decades of leadership across child welfare, mental health, and family law systems, she helps families and professionals navigate complex transitions through approaches that unite legal integrity with emotional wellness. Her work focuses on building trauma-informed, child-centred practices where justice and healing can coexist.
