Talia Spear

Talia is a Co-parenting Coach, Certified Comprehensive Family Mediator, Counsellor, Certified Family Relations Mediator, and Child-Inclusive Mediator who supports families in building realistic, affordable, and sustainable pathways forward; especially in moments when relationships feel stuck, fragile, or impossible. She helps reduce conflict, restore predictability for children, and create calmer co-parenting systems where communication becomes functional rather than triggering.

Talia has a reputation for being able to “hold” complex family dynamics without assigning blame, pathologizing, or taking sides.

Parents value her ability to stay calm when things feel chaotic and to help them understand why patterns keep repeating as well as how to change them.

Talia began her career more than twenty years ago in assault services. Over the decades that followed, she’s been fortunate to have led multiple local, regional, national, and international teams improving access to safety, stability, and dignity for vulnerable populations experiencing trauma, violence, poverty, crisis, homelessness, mental-health challenges, and systemic exclusion.

She brings that same commitment to families navigating separation and divorce, especially when the journey has been painful, confusing, or adversarial. Talia is known for her ability to work effectively with lawyers, mental-health providers, educators, and the court system while remaining anchored in what is genuinely best for the child.

She is frequently described as soft-spoken, measured, insightful, and exceptionally effective; someone with warmth and backbone.

Talia is a child of parents who navigated “high-conflict” co-parenting for nearly two decades. She also experienced “reunification” therapy herself as a child. These experiences shaped her belief that support works best when children and parents feel emotionally safe and respected in the process, and when steps forward are introduced at a pace that protects each person’s well-being rather than overwhelming them. She also fundamentally believes that change is possible when compassion and accountability coexist, and that children have the right to their childhood as well as to healthy relationships with safe, attuned parents.

Talia works from the assumption that every parent is more than the hardest moment in their history, and every family member deserves the chance to build healthier patterns. She practices from an omni-partial, function-forward, culturally supportive, trauma-aware, child-focused, and neurodiversity-affirming perspective.

Her goal is to create a space where each family member can be heard and where solutions feel doable, safe and sustainable. She works with both survivors of family violence as well as folks who have behaved abusively. Talia is extensively trained to work with both populations and does so because, simply, parents deserve peace, and children deserve relationships with healthy, safe and attuned parents.

Talia is known for her ability to:

• hear children’s voices under conflict and insulate them from being weaponized

• help parents understand nervous-system responses, attachment needs, and trauma patterns

• support parents overwhelmed by their own history, stress, or emotional reactions

• empower change for parents who have caused harm and genuinely want to attune to their children and change how they show up in their co-parenting dynamic

• support parents who have experienced harm or abuse from a deeply trauma-aware perspective to navigate co-parenting challenges without pushing them to abandon their instincts or boundaries

• create conditions for emotional safety and relational repair that allow for sustainable and meaningful healthy relationships to emerge

Her training spans a wide range of respected organizations and institutions, including Family Mediation Canada, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Children Beyond Dispute, Harvard Law School, Stanford University, the Institute of Child Psychology, the Crisis and Trauma Research Institute, the High Conflict Institute, the Justice Institute of BC, the University of Toronto, the University of Salford’s MSc Psychology with a specialization in coercive control programme, and RESOLVE, among many others.

She holds many certifications and specialty training inclusive but not limited to:

• Certified Comprehensive Family Mediator (C.CFM)

• Certified Family Relations Mediator (C.FRM)

• Certified New Ways for Families Coach (C.NWFF)

• Certified Child Inclusive Mediation and Counselling Consultant (CIMC)

• Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP-II)

• Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist (ASDCS)

• Certified Coercive Control Trauma-Informed Clinician

• ADHD Certified Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP)

• Dual Certified Child and Family Trauma Professional (CFTP)

• Certified Advanced Grief Counselling Specialist (CAGCS)

• Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician (NATC)

• Certificate in Gender Based Violence - Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children

• Certificate in Family Mediation - Herzing College

• Certificate in Child Protection Mediation - Family Mediation Canada

• Certificate in Parenting Coordination - Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

• Certificate in Parenting Plan Evaluations - Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

• Somatic Experiencing Professional Certification - Beg I, Beg II, Beg III

In alignment with her values, she offers limited pro bono (no-cost) and sliding-scale (reduced cost) spaces for survivors of family violence, mature minor children seeking to have their voices safely heard, and individuals with annual household incomes under $60,000

If cost is a barrier and you have been accused or convicted of causing harm and genuinely want to show up differently for your children, Talia welcomes you to inquire about pro bono and sliding-scale availability as well.