About Us

The Togetherness Family Supervision agency commenced in May 2013 when it merged with another reputable family supervision agency known as Home Access Network Pty Ltd formally run by Ms Catherine Bellinger.

When embarking upon her business venture, Togetherness Managing Director, Ms Cindy Tatarskyj, identified the important contribution that family supervision observations offer when trying to understand parent-child relationships and the surrounding issues, especially during Court proceedings.

Ms Tatarskyj has recognised that comprehensive, objective family observations conducted over a period of time can greatly assist legal professionals, members of the judiciary and others, with making long term decisions about time arrangements between a parent and child.

Ms Tatarskyj has ascertained that assessing the quality of parent-child relationships is gained through understanding how these family members relate to each other, and the Togetherness family supervision agency has the vantage point of being able to observe interactions during supervised time arrangements.

As a Family Consultant for the Family Law Court, Ms Tatarskyj drew on her previous experience as a Family Report Writer, where an integral part of completing a Family Report involved conducting family observations.

When starting her own family supervision agency, Ms Tatarskyj realised that more involvement with families via observations over many hours and across numerous supervised sessions, meant that more insight could be gained through an extended period of watching and listening to how parents and children relate to each other.

Ms Tatarskyj was so intrigued by the nature and quality of parent-child relationships that she developed an Observation model that enabled her to differentiate between crucial segments of a child’s contact with a parent. This model consists of the initial changeover (how the child separates from the primary carer), the meet and greet phase (the child’s responsiveness to the other parent), supported time (how the parent and child spend time together), the departure phase (how the child separates from the other parent, whether the process is organised and the child is settled) and finally, the concluding changeover (the process of returning the child back to the care of the residential parent). This model has since been adopted by other family supervision agencies.

Ms Tatarskyj realised that conducting numerous observations throughout the course of a supervised time regime enabled her to develop a deeper understanding of the unfolding dynamics between a parent and child – how and why family members relate to each other – in ways that were not easy to discern during on family observation session.

With this in consideration, Ms Tatarskyj has modelled the Togetherness observation approach on attachment theory that originates from John Bowlby and, which was further developed by Mary Ainsworth. However, this approach needs to be understood in the context of litigation.
And so, the Togetherness agency considers the parent-child connection in light of conflict that it often on-going, unresolved and where there are usually “at risk” allegations and counter-allegations between parents.

Togetherness Family Supervisors specialise in the sensitivities of parent-child relationships and are mindful as to how a range of complex issues may impact on a child’s connectedness to a parent. Togetherness Family Supervisors are tertiary educated professionals with backgrounds that enable them to support parents and children during supervised time arrangements with insight and care.

Directing Manager of Togetherness, Ms Cindy Tatarskyj, has a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Social Sciences with Honours (1999) as well as a Bachelor of Social Work with First Class Honours (2006). Her professional work history has been dedicated to working with children and families in difficult situations, where she has conducted comprehensive assessments for Courts and for other legislative requirements.

She worked as a Child Protection Specialist Practitioner and Team Leader (2006-2010) and received an Award for Excellence when working with Aboriginal Families when in this role (2009) and also received Special Recognition for Excellent Conduct from Principal Practitioner, Ms Robyn Millar (2009). She then worked as Family Law Court Consultant for Dandenong and Melbourne Registries (2011) before she decided to venture out independently to start her own business.

Ms Tatarskyj gained experience into the requirements of managing a family supervision agency by working for Home Access Network Pty Ltd where she was quickly promoted to Managing Director (2012).

Ms Tatarskyj also worked for a charity organization, Waverley Emergency Adolescent Care (WEAC), from 2014 until its closure in December (2015), where she assessed the suitability of potential foster carers and also conducted investigations into “abuse in care” allegations in conjunction with State Government Departmental officials, and was directly accountable to the WEAC Chief Executive Officer.

Ms Tatarskyj has had extensive experience with managing family matters that are extremely complex and complicated, and some of which have been extensively litigated.