Mediation is a service to help couples who have decided to separate or divorce, or who have already separated, to negotiate their own terms of agreement, while addressing the needs and interests of all involved. Mediation allows people to make their own decisions.

The Family Mediation Service encourages the separating couple to co-operate with each other in working out mutually acceptable arrangements on all or any of the following:

• Parenting the children
• Financial support
• Family home and property
• Other problems related to the separation

The role of the mediator:

• To see a couple together and help them settle their differences.
• To create a climate in which neither party dominates but in which both parties participate fully in good faith.
• To create and maintain an atmosphere of co-operation and responsibility.
• To help couples deal with difficult emotional issues that can prevent them reaching any agreement.
• To help couples reach agreement that they believe to be fair, equitable and workable.

How does the service operate?

professionally trained mediator assists the couple to reach their own agreement.

• Both parties attend.
• Discussions are confidential.
• The mediator does not take sides nor gives suggestions; he/she is responsible to facilitate communication between the couple.

For an appointment requesting Family Mediation Service, both parties must contact (individually or jointly) and confirm their willingness to attend and sign the voluntary consent form.

Mediation usually takes between two and six sessions. Each session lasts approximately one / two hours. The mediation process may require joint meetings by the couple with the mediator or caucus (individual meetings) depending upon the case complexity.

Outcome

Most mediations end with a written document that sets out all the details of the couple's agreement. This can then be taken to solicitors/ legal attorneys to be drawn into a Legal Deed of Separation and/or Decree of Divorce.

When a couple has reached an agreement, a session is offered to parents to invite their children in to discuss their new family arrangements.

What are the advantages of mediation?

These include:

• The Family Mediation Service is a confidential service
• It’s a non - adversarial process and costs much less than court litigations
• Each mediated agreement deals with the particular needs of the people involved
• A balanced agreement is reached that is acceptable to both parties
• Parents are helped to remain as partners in childrearing by developing parenting plans that are personal to each family

Mediation Traning Programme
(Three day workshop)

Overview

This intensive five-day program provides students with the hands-on opportunity to engage in mediations and acquire the skills used to assist parties with divergent interests to reach a resolution. Through extensive simulations in which students will have the opportunity to be both the mediator and a party in a dispute, students will learn how third-party intervention can resolve conflict in a wide variety of settings, from workplace and commercial to interpersonal and community disputes. A significant focus of the program will be the use of mediation role play exercises in which students will be observed and coached by professional mediators.

Format

This is an extremely intense and highly engaging workshop. Adults learn better by doing rather than just seeing, and therefore the course places emphasis on participants practicing the skills and process through role play and exercises.

Program Goals

Over the course of three -day intensive training, students will

• Acquire the skills used to assist parties with divergent interests to reach a resolution
• Engage in simulated mediations to develop an understanding of the mediation process
• Work with coaches who have professional conflict mediation experience
• Set performance-based standards for evaluating their own work
• Learn about ethics in the field, opportunities in commercial mediation and arbitration, and how to start building a practice as a mediator