Dr. Sonia Cann-Milland

My counselling experience comes from a multi-disciplinary background. I have worked in a range of social welfare services, educational organisations, and am presently working in private practice as a counsellor and a specialist in stepfamily counselling and education. For the last thirty years my clientele has been broad including working with children, teenagers, adult individuals, couples and families. I have extensive experience in working with a diverse range of families, including, first time families, single parents, post-divorce parents, stepfamily parents’ and same sex couples. I continue to be passionate in my role as a researcher and writer on various topics relevant to stepfamilies.

In recent years I have published three papers in academic journals addressing self-Identity crisis from my perspective as a stepmother. The second article addresses the issues for recoupled parents in stepfamilies who are raising step/biological children on the Autism Spectrum. My third article addresses the importance of the relationship between recoupled parents and the impact it has on the children’s sustained health and overall wellbeing. I have written on many topics relating to couples adjusting to life in a stepfamily. My interest in stepfamily living began from my own personal journey as a stepmother for the last fifteen years. I have five children, two birth children and three children from remarrying. They are all now adults and we are blessed with a grandchild. We have parented and co-parented these children through all of their developmental stages of life. This personal journey has added to my knowledge and empathy regarding the issue’s other individuals, couples and children in stepfamilies experience. I believe living in a stepfamily can be fraught with their own unique and complex issues. They can also be a healthy and fulfilling family structure. It is for this reason I do what I do.