Mediation for Separating Couples
Relationship breakdown can be a stressful and emotional experience, making it difficult to decide about and agree on parenting, living arrangements, finances and property. Mediation for separating couples offers a process for making informed decisions with the help of a professional mediator.
Mediation is different to the adversarial court-based system. With our help, you and your ex-partner can make your own decisions about your unique situation and that of your family, rather than having a judge make these important decision for you.
Mediation is:
- A decision making process, whereby the couples themselves (with the help of a trained professional mediator) make their own decisions having thought through the consequences of these decisions
- Mediation focuses on the needs of each of the couple as well as their children not on any one person’s individual rights
- Each agreement is tailor made to meet the needs of that particular family
- Couples decide the agenda and the mediator manages that discussion
- Counselling
- Advice giving, such as legal, tax or others
- Adversarial; Mediation sees all the parties on one side of the table trying to sort out each issue together
- Parenting the children
- Financial support
- Provision of two homes for the future
- Division of assets and pensions
- Comprehensive agreements: which cover all issues resulting from the separation including finance, parenting, accommodation etc
- Parenting agreements: which address parenting issues and support good parenting models
- Financial agreements: which cover the finances and assets of the couple
- Interim agreements: where the parties make an agreement for a specific time frame
- Partial agreements: which address a particular issue or issues