When good marriages go bad, innocent children are often caught in the middle. But instead of setting a positive example for impressionable young ones, family courts in the United States and Canada often reinforce old stereotypes by granting mothers special privileges, much to the detriment of loving fathers.

Counselor Robert M. Tansley is painfully aware of just how unjust the family court system can be when it comes to the treatment of divorcing dads.

A father of four, Tansley returned home from a business trip one day to find a message from his wife on their answering machine: “We are in a safe place.” It subsequently took him almost three weeks to discover that his family had gone to a shelter for abused women.

Thus began an excruciating battle with what Tansley
has called “the Kafkaesque world of the Canadian family law industry.”

On your show, he will discuss his painful journey down the road toward reconciliation with his family, which included:

• Victimization by his wife, who stalked him and confronted him in public places and in front of their children.

• Repeated verbal and physical harassment.

• His discovery that a significant number of middle-aged men commit suicide while fighting for their paternal rights.

CREDENTIALS: Robert M. Tansley is the author of THE ANATOMY OF DIVORCE (Key Publishing House, Inc., 2007). He holds a master’s degree in social work and has worked for more than 20 years counseling couples.

AVAILABILITY: United States and Canada, by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Robert M. Tansley, (519) 751-2552 (Ontario); rmtansley@sympatico.ca