InCredible Witness

Many parents and guardians fail to recognise how every word, facial expression, gesture or action gives the child a message about their self-worth. Michael explains how important it is to acknowledge your influence over children through your communications with them and how easily it can be to casually damage a child’s self-esteem.    KEY TAKEAWAYS  Everything a parent does including tone of voice...

It is always a possibility that in the family court, despite your best presentation, knowledge and efforts your evidence is still not valued as seriously as you would have liked or hoped. Michael explains how to increase the likelihood of your evidence being given preference over others.     KEY TAKEAWAYS  Expert witness evidence supporting your conclusions can be very valuable.  Some parents can...

How much point is there really in arguing? It is most often completely unnecessary especially if you have good control over your emotions and thoughts. Michael tackles the superfluous ‘red mist’ and demonstrates how a level head is a huge advantage in every situation, let alone in a family court.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  The loss of temper often results in hateful consequences and ongoing incidents unrela...

When emotionally out of control with frustration or anger, we have very little control over the words that come out of our mouths and consequently very little is communicated of any value. In the stressful environment of the family courtroom, it can be all too easy to succumb to this situation. Michael details how you should stay in control and control what you say. KEY TAKEAWAYS When giving evide...

Michael Watson’s years of experience providing evidence in family court give him a unique perspective on how care workers, parents, and guardians should behave before a judge. In this week’s episode, he discusses how best to present yourself when trying to influence a judge in your favour.    KEY TAKEAWAYS  When presenting evidence in family court, the best way to influence the judge is to think l...

If you have never been to the family court to give evidence or even if you have given evidence on numerous occasions it is inevitably an uncomfortable experience. Be ready for this and expect to be challenged. Michael explains what is waiting for you in the witness box and how you should respond to it.  KEY TAKEAWAYS  The court setting is specifically designed to test your evidence under stress. ...

Self-doubt plays a deceptively harmful role in most of our lives. At some point, most of us question the validity of our skills, strengths and knowledge to an extent that is detrimental to our jobs, relationships and efforts. Michael addresses this lack of conviction and challenges you to confront it as the hurdle you must overcome before you can succeed in any endeavour.     KEY TAKEAWAYS  Every...

Michael explains how we can foster positive relationships with the clients and colleagues we work with and how, counterintuitively, small actions and considerations can be vital in keeping you valued and appreciated by those around you and make your job easier by gaining their cooperation.      KEY TAKEAWAYS Lots of aspects need to be demonstrated to facilitate a healthy relationship; respect, goo...

What does it mean to be a good parent? Very few identify themselves as bad parents, but no parenting is perfect so when you are assessing parental capacity it is necessary to have a clear idea of what “good enough” parenting involves. Michael explains what it means for a parent to be emotionally unavailable to their children.     KEY TAKEAWAYS  It is natural and easy to focus on if a parent meets...

How we were parented as children play a vital role in how we parent as adults. In this week’s episode, social work expert Michael Watson discusses the correlation between our lived childhoods and what we consider normal when raising our children.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  A parent’s experience of being parented plays a vital role in how they care for their children. The parenting they offer their children...

Not every question asked in court will be an easy one. In this week’s episode, Michael Watson discusses how to prepare yourself for questioning in court and what you can do to ensure you’re not tripped up or discredited.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  Don’t rush your answers. Allow yourself time to think about the question and how you want to answer it. Questions may seem difficult when you’re not prepared for...

How is giving evidence in court the same as driving a car? Michael Watson shares the similarities and how keeping your cool and knowing the court's rules will make you a better evidence-giver.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  As with learning to drive, giving evidence in court takes practice.  When driving a car, you have to be in complete control of your emotional state. The same is true for appearing in court. ...

How often have you heard people complain of their broken plans and dreams, too often supposedly ruined and beleaguered by unfortunate circumstances or unsupportive family or peers? Do they speak of their ‘one golden chance’ missed and frequently regretted, lost and never to be revisited? Michael takes a fresh look at lost ambition from a new angle, one of self-responsibility and positivity.     KE...

Michael shares an invaluable lesson he learned on the value of being honest about what you don’t know and taking your time when answering questions in court, and the effectiveness of your language and expression when acting as a witness.    KEY TAKEAWAYS  The Court does not expect you to know everything in any case, or be an expert on every subject matter. Listen carefully to every question and co...

When achieving your targets and goals you often have to have resilience, patience, determination and resolve. In other words, to get what you want, you had better get used to feeling uncomfortable. This also applies to your testimony in court.    KEY TAKEAWAYS  Growth and change inevitably come hand in hand with discomfort. During the process, you often develop resilience and your discomfort becom...

Michael Watson discusses how accepting responsibility for our actions can be liberating and how placing blame to save admitting poor choices stirs up conflict and harms others.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  Blaming others won’t get you anywhere. All it does is stir up conflict and breed mistrust. Blame is learned behaviour. We are responsible for the decisions we make or fail to make. Assuming responsibility f...

A Barrister’s job is to debase, belittle and doubt your evidence in court to increase the relevance, respect and veracity of their client’s evidence. They do this by deliberately unnerving you and reducing your confidence with embarrassing or vindictive questioning and they do this very often and have inevitably become very skilled at it. As a Social Worker, you are a multi-tasking problem solver...

Welcome to Incredible Witness with Michael Watson, the podcast that will inform and advise you through all aspects of the Family Court system. Throughout this series, Michael will use his extensive experience as a Social Worker to demystify the workings of Family Court and provide skills and information that can be effectively utilised in a Family Court setting, starting with his first assigned ca...

ABOUT THE HOSTMichael Watson is a professionally qualified social worker with over 32 years of experience as an expert in the family court. Having given evidence more times than he can count, Michael knows exactly what it takes to give great evidence in court. His first experience giving evidence was a nightmare and left him traumatized, but he made a promise to himself that he would never allow i...