Current Program Locations

New Ways for Families is a brand new method that is available in only a few locations at this time.

San Diego, California:

New Ways originated in San Diego, where its developer, Bill Eddy, has practiced as a family law attorney and mediator for the past 18 years. In 2009, Supervising Family Court Judge Lorna Alksne authorized all family law judicial officers to order the program in cases they each thought appropriate. There have been approximately 20 cases in San Diego County so far. In many cases, family law attorneys have encouraged their clients to agree to use the program without the necessity of having a judge order it. There is a list of about 20 New Ways counselors, who have experience with divorcing families and have had some New Ways training. There is a study of this method by Ph.D. students at the Alliant University Department of Professional Psychology which is just beginning to collect data. For information about New Ways in San Diego, contact Michelle Jensen at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada:

In 2011, Medicine Hat Family Services was awarded a grant of approximatley $500,000 by the Alberta Government’s Safe Communities Initiative to implement the New Ways for Families method for three years. In coordination with the family law judiciary, they plan to start their program in January, 2012, and to have all families with a parenting dispute in family court use New Ways first. This will provide valuable information about its impact on the community, as well as individual families. One of the goals of their grant is to see if children can be positively affected by the use of New Ways, rather than traditional litigation in highly conflicted parenting disputes. For information, contact Cassidy Sheehan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Calgary, Alberta, Canada:

In 2011, the YWCA of Calgary was also awarded a grant of nearly $500,000 by the Alberta Government’s Safe Communities Initiative to try the New Ways method for three years. Counselors with the YWCA will provide the counseling part of this method and they received a 2-day training in June 2011. Judges are scheduled to receive training in the method in January, 2012. The YWCA has a positive history of serving families with domestic violence issues, among other services, so that implementing New Ways with these families is hoped to reduce the negative impact on their children. For information, contact Allan Rosales at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Other programs:

There are some professionals and some agencies using New Ways for Families in other cities in the United States and Canada, but they are not yet part of the trained formal New Ways for Families Network. We expect to be listing more of them soon.