COUPLES MEDIATION
Looking in the same direction
Couples Mediation allows for a series of guided negotiations in which couples are assisted in crafting concrete, practical solutions. We are often moving in many different directions. Couples mediation can bring time and focus to look in the same direction.
Clarifying the issues
Identifying what the biggest issues are and often these are finances. Putting together a budget, running potential scenarios and discussing goals together can bring clarification.
Developing concrete solutions
Often during mediation, we are able to brainstorm different scenarios that can become concrete, explicit guidelines, which both parties agree, in order to resolve conflict.
Enhancing communication skills
Having written commitments help create written agreements to revisit when issues resurface and of communicating when cyclical conversations resurface.
Couples Mediation (also known as "marriage mediation" and "mediation to stay married") is an emerging and exciting area of mediation that gives couples practical tools in how to save a marriage from divorce. It addresses couples who are having problems, but who wish to stay married.
I have often asked myself if I could have helped a divorcing couple through mediation a year or two earlier, when the couple was struggling but was not yet giving up on their marriage.
Couples mediation could be right for you if:
- you are interested in avoiding divorce;
- you are having marital problems;
- you are committed to each other and want to stay married;
- you wish to reconcile but are struggling with issues that they cannot seem to resolve.
In a series of marital mediation sessions, the couples identify their presenting issues. The neutral marriage mediator listens, observes their interactions, and provides input. Marriage mediators can see patterns of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and assumptions between the couples that the couple themselves cannot see. In an open and honest way, I hope to use these observations to work with your to improve your communications.
Throughout the marital mediation process, many issues may be discussed including:
- Avoiding Divorce
- Marriage Reconciliation
- Couples Mediation vs. Marital Counseling
- Postnuptial Agreements
