A complete online training programme for people supporting others through separation and divorce in England and Wales. Most of that work is paperwork, organisation and helping two people reach an agreement, and most clients never stand in front of a judge. This teaches all of it, court or no court. Twenty-eight modules, an assessment and a Certificate of Successful Completion, delivered entirely on the web.
Why train here
A McKenzie Friend needs everything a client needs, and the practitioner layer on top. So this is not a manual with a client guide bolted on to the back of it. It is one sequence, twelve parts, following a separation in the order it actually unfolds.
You start with the role and its boundaries, and with setting up to practise. Then the system, the first work on any case, safety, the divorce, the children, the money, the house, clients who were never married, wills and pensions, and hearings on the occasions they happen. The practitioner’s part sits inside each stage rather than in a separate section.
See every module →People hear "McKenzie Friend" and picture a courtroom. In practice a great deal of this work happens nowhere near one, and the programme is built on that footing.
Somebody still has to help that person get the divorce application right, make honest disclosure, work out what is fair on the house and the pensions, agree the arrangements for the children, keep the correspondence calm, and turn the whole thing into a consent order so it cannot be reopened years later. That is the bulk of the job, and this programme treats it as the main event.
When it does, you cannot be learning on the day. So the programme also walks stage by stage through private children and financial remedy proceedings, evidence, bundles under PD27A, hearing preparation, enforcement and variation, and the hard boundary on what you may and may not do in the room.
A whole module opens in the real player, with the full contents of every other module alongside it. Judge the programme by it.
Enrol once and the whole programme opens straight away in your browser. There is nothing to install and nothing arrives in the post.
Short, calm modules you take at your own pace, on a laptop, tablet or phone. Your progress saves automatically, so you can stop and pick up whenever suits.
Finish with an interactive assessment, marked as you go. Pass it and your Certificate of Successful Completion is generated for you to print or save.
Separation Support Practitioner and McKenzie Friend, working from Essex and Suffolk and online across England and Wales. The Separation Companion exists to give people practical, calm and organised support through divorce and separation.
This programme is that same support, written down and set out in order, for people who want to provide it to others properly.
More about the practiceEntirely online. You log in, work through the modules in your browser and your progress is saved as you go. There is nothing to print apart from your certificate at the end.
There are 59 modules across twelve parts, about 16 hours of learning in total. There is no time limit and no fixed start date. You work at whatever pace suits you, and most people take it a part at a time.
Yes. The programme ends with a 45 question interactive assessment covering all twelve parts, marked as you answer, with the reasoning explained whether you get it right or wrong. The pass mark is 90 per cent, which is deliberately high: the certificate says you can be trusted beside somebody in a difficult week. If you do not pass first time you can review the modules and try again. Your progress is kept.
It is a Certificate of Successful Completion, confirming that you have completed this training and passed its assessment. It is not a professional accreditation and it is not a licence to practise. McKenzie Friends are unregulated, and the programme is clear throughout about what that means in practice.
No. The programme is written in plain English and starts from first principles: how separation actually works, divorce and dissolution, sorting out money, arrangements for children, reaching agreement away from court, safeguarding, and then proceedings and hearings for the occasions they arise, before turning to the practitioner pathway.
No, and that is one of the more common misunderstandings about the role. A great many separations are resolved without a single hearing, and those clients still need somebody who understands the forms, the disclosure, the money and the agreement. That work is the core of the programme. Proceedings are covered thoroughly as well, because the client who suddenly does need a hearing cannot wait while you learn.
Yes. A whole module is free, in the real player, together with the complete contents of everything else. There is a free sample here.
Yes. It is checked against the law of England and Wales and carries a review date; the current material was last reviewed on 21st August 2026. Enrolment includes access to updates.
No, and the programme is emphatic about it. Conducting litigation and exercising rights of audience are reserved legal activities under the Legal Services Act 2007, and a McKenzie Friend must not do either unless the court grants permission, which is exceptional.
Enrol once, work through it at your own pace, and finish with a certificate you can show. Or read a module free first and decide afterwards.
