Mediation for Families
Helping separating or separated parents make arrangements for their children through Mediation
Benefits of mediation for child related matters
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Empowering. Allows you to make the decisions, not the courts.
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Collaborative. You work together to make arrangements for your children.
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The Child's Voice. Through child inclusive mediation, your children can share their hopes and fears for the future.
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Better Understanding. Through mediation you will each gain a better understanding of the other's point of view.
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Timely. Less red tape than going through the legal system and court proceedings.
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Cost-effective. Mediation is more cost effective than settling through the courts.
Video by the Family Mediators Association:
Family Mediators are trained to help you to engage with each other in a shared search for solutions that work for your children.
We can help you to listen to each other and to understand what is important to each of you as you seek to meet your responsibilities as parents. We can also, through Child Inclusive Mediation, help you to hear your child’s voice, so that you can take into account their hopes and feelings when making decisions.
Because family mediation does not follow a set timetable, you will be able to trial ideas before making final choices. We are also able to help you explore ways to communicate well with each other.
How can Family Mediation help you to make the best choices for your children?
Books we recommend to help you and your family
Parenting Apart
Christina McGhee
ISBN: 9780091939830
Quite a few books have been written to help separated parents. This one is, in my view, the very best - and by a considerable margin.
Parenting Apart should be regarded as an 'Operator's Manual' - a resource to dip into and to consult when you are not sure where to for guidance. It should be read in the right spirit, by which I mean that you should approach it with the question: 'What can I learn from this that will help me to be the best parent that I can be?' and certainly not with a view to be able to pin-point what the children's other parent might be doing wrong!
Being a parent is a challenge at the best of times. Being a parent after separation has an extra layer of difficulty. The purchase of this volume is a great first step in addressing those challenges and difficulties.
