Our coaching team
Ian McKean
Ian is the founder and Clinical Director of the Parents Partner and is passionate about helping families be their very best. For nearly 30 years he has been writing and presenting family seminars and workshops in Australia and New Zealand. He has extensive experience in how families function and what families need to create love and health in their relationships. His expertise is family therapy and family life education. As a practitioner, his skill is to take complex research based theories and make them easy for parents to understand and apply. His academic research field is burnout and marital satisfaction. Ian is a qualified Emotionally Focussed Therapist and strongly believes in the power of a strong emotional attachment to build and repair relationships. He is skilled at helping people strengthen their attachments and therefore enhance their parenting and marriage relationships.
In a changing world where families are experiencing so many time and energy demands, he understands the challenges facing today’s parents – the changes they experience as they become parents, and the need for effective parenting skills.
In order to help parents optimise their child’s potential he has developed numerous educational products to help families improve and repair their relationships. These include marital and parenting workshops that teach parents new insights and skills for addressing the challenges they face, community talks, authoring over 30 support brochures, and developing several psychological assessment instruments (Self Awareness Profile, Child Behaviour Assessment). He has a passion that all good practice is based on good theory.
Ian is a competent and inspiring workshop presenter and trainer trainer. He has been formally trained by Bob Pike and Dr. Rich Allen. He has also learned from some of the business world’s best presenters, including Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. Jim Collins, and Dr. Stephen Covey. Over the years Ian has developed an avid interest in applying psychological theory to organisations. Effective organisational life is based on solid psychological learning and insights.
His current research areas are:
- Attachment wounds and their effect on children’s behaviour.
- Developing a model that REALLY works with aggressive, hostile children.
- What is the core process of profound change in families.
- How can couples have a better transition to parenthood (research indicates the majority of new parents report a significant decrease in marital satisfaction after the birth of a child).
- Understanding the emotional world of a child
- Accurately assessing challenging children (effective intervention is based on accurate assessment)
Education and Professional Affiliations
M.A. in Counselling and Family Science
Member of American Society of Training and Development (ASTD)
Member of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR)
Certified “Emotionally Focussed Couples Therapist” (EFT)
Accredited in a number of psychometric and assessment tests, including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DiSC, Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA), NEO, Prepare and Enrich, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Parent Stress Index (PSI).
Professional training
Gottman Institute Level 1: Marital Therapy Research Based Approached
Gottman Institute Level 2: Marital Therapy Assessment & Intervention
Emotionally Focussed Couples Therapist
Certified trainer for Active Parenting
Training for Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)
Lab 1 counselling skills course completed
Learning to Care listening skills training
Reality Therapy training (Drs. Ron Huston and Gary Applegate – Center for Skill Development)
Ian has received specialised training in Dr. Stephen Covey’s Seven Principles of Highly Effective People and is an accredited trainer in the seven habits process.
Ian is married to Kaye and they have four sons, Cameron, Lachlan, Logan and Alexander.
Kaye McKean
Kaye is a Mum, and Parents Partner consultant. She works with parents who have behavioural and developmental parenting challenges. Her interest is families with a particular focus on the needs of teenage children. She has a soft spot for parent deprived children and as a result began her own charity to care for orphaned children in Russia. She heads Lighthouse Orphan Foundation which works in 3 state orphanages in Tatarstan, Russia, helping these children become their very best.
Kaye has an educational approach to growing happy families. As a High School teacher Kaye was a gifted and competent teacher who was well loved by her school and students. She loves teaching, presenting workshops and training.
So often parents seek help through books that offer a great theory or method for solving their problem, only to find it doesn’t work for them. Kaye recognises that all the theories have worked for someone – or they wouldn’t have been written. The secret is NOT in finding the right idea, theory or method, but in winning the right to influence your child. Once you’ve won that parental right then the theory that best fits your unique family mix will work wonderfully!
In a world full of thousands of books and research on families and parenting, Kaye has a gift for cutting through the theory and finding just the right pathway for individual needs. She believes giving parents the confidence and energy to be the parents they already want to be is better than long term counselling that makes a person dependent on their counsellor.
Education
Bachelor of Ministry major in Pastoral Care
Post Graduate Diploma in Guidance Counselling
Post Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching
Professional Training
Lab 1 Counselling skills course
Certified to use Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA), and Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS)
Kaye is married to Ian and they have four sons, Cameron, Lachlan, Logan and Alexander.