Divorce And Family Mediation

Building on the success of their groundbreaking 1988 Divorce Mediation, Folberg et al. now present the latest state-of-the-art, comprehensive resource on family and divorce mediation. Paving the way for the field to establish its own distinct discipline and academic tradition, this authoritative volume offers chapters contributed by leading mediation researchers, trainers, and practitioners. Detailed are the theory behind mediation practice, the contemporary social and political context, and practical issues involved in mediating divorce and custody disputes with contemporary families. Authors also address intriguing questions about professional standards and where the field should go from here. A groundbreaking resource, this volume is indispensable for all mental health and legal professionals working with families in transition.

The Effective Mediation is a practical, hands on guide for family and divorce mediators who wish to increase the effectiveness of their work with their clients, as well as beginning mediators or mediators in training who wish to learn the art and science of family and divorce mediation.

Long recognized as the authoritative guide for clinicians working with divorcing families, this book presents crucial concepts, strategies, and intervention techniques. Robert E. Emery describes how to help parents navigate the emotional and legal hurdles of this painful family transition while protecting their children's well-being. The book is grounded in cutting-edge research on family relationships, parenting, and children's adjustment, including Emery's groundbreaking longitudinal study of the impact of divorce mediation versus litigation. It provides a detailed treatment manual for mediating custody and other disputes, developing collaborative parenting plans, and fostering positive postdivorce family relationships. New to This Edition *Reflects the latest psychological research, as well as divorce and custody law. *Chapters on understanding and addressing divorcing partners' anger and grief. *Treatment manual chapters have been extensively revised. *Incorporates the author's 12-year follow-up study.

Although divorce is essentially a matter of personal choice, its emotional aspects are necessarily entwined with legal dynamics, making decisions about divorce a matter of both the heart and the law. Consequently, feelings become facts that must be accommodated in the divorce process in order to reach a viable lasting result. Divorce mediation, an alternative to traditional judicial intervention and third-party decision making, facilitates private negotiation and takes into account emotional as well as legal dimensions of marital dissolution. This process empowers divorcing couples to be actively involved in making the choices that will affect their lives for years to come. The divorce mediator acts as a neutral party who promotes decision making with the family and helps divorcing couples to develop their own parental, financial, and property arrangements. Because divorce mediation views divorce as a multidimensional process that involves both legal and psychological matters, it has attracted professionals from both fields who wish to facilitate a less adversarial approach to the dissolution of a marriage. DIVORCE MEDIATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE fills the currently unmet need for a comprehensive treatment of this burgeoning field. Editors Folberg and Milne, both nationally recognized authorities, have compiled an interdisciplinary state-of-the-art work on divorce resolution. Leading practitioners have contributed chapters which define the theory of divorce mediation, and outline techniques and strategies, as well as ethical considerations and constraints, standards of practice, and policy issues. Current results and forthcoming research findings on such important and controversial matters such as mediation's role in domestic violence disputes are also included. The volume opens with a lucid discussion of theory and practice, the nature of divorce disputes, and methods for achieving settlements. It goes on to offer a detailed overview of the psychological and legal dimensions to be considered. Next, organizational settings in which divorce mediation occurs, namely courts-of-law, private practice, agencies, and organizations are discussed. The implications of divorce mediation for such complex areas of dispute as child custody and financial agreements are vividly conveyed. The process of engaging couples in constructive communication and reducing irrationality is fully explored in the chapters on power balancing, communication strategies, and techniques to break impasses. Legal and ethical issues discussed include liability of divorce mediators, confidentiality and privilege, and standards of practice. The book closes with comprehensive coverage of research results, a longitudinal comparison of mediated versus adversarial divorce, and an in-depth descriptive analysis of common divorce mediation behaviors. This groundbreaking volume brings together a wide range of noted practitioners and researchers in this dynamic discipline to produce the singular interdisciplinary, comprehensive work on this subject to date. DIVORCE MEDIATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE will be an indispensable tool for mediators, therapists, social workers, lawyers, educators and other dispute resolution professionals. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with empowering couples to determine their own mutual and individual responsibilities, and rendering the process of marriage dissolution more cooperative and humane.

This open access book presents twelve unique studies on mediation from researchers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively. Each study highlights important aspects of mediation, including the role of children in family mediation, the evolution and ambivalent application of restorative justice in the Nordic countries, the confusion of roles in court-connected mediation, and the challenges in dispute systems. Over the past 20-30 years, mediation has gained in popularity in many countries around the world and is often heralded as a suitable and cost-effective mode of conflict resolution. However, as the studies in this volumes show, mediation also has a number of potential drawbacks. Parties’ self-determination may be jeopardized, affected third parties are involved in an inadequate way, and the legal regulations may be flawed. The publication can inspire research, help professionals and policymakers in the field and be used as a textbook.

Topics covered include an overview of mediation, dispute resolution, mediation in practice: issues, procedures, skills, custody and access, support and property, professional conduct.

“So far lawyers are the only ones getting any money.” “There’s no middle ground. We only talk through lawyers.” “I open my mouth and we end up screaming at each other.” Sound familiar? What if there was a way to divorce with a minimum of hostility, time, and expense? It is attainable, even if you are working towards these goals without the cooperation of your spouse. The Yoga of Divorce advocates that we shift our reactions and embrace the notion of cooperative opposition, the idea that the same non-adversarial process that works on the yoga mat can be used at the negotiation table. The key to The Yoga of Divorce’s strategy is to 'park ego at the door'. If we stop trying to 'win' but instead seek a solution that is fair to both sides, we make much smoother progress. The mindful practice of cooperative opposition can simultaneously resolve physical stress and social conflict by intentionally balancing opposite forces. It might seem simple, but it takes conscious effort. We urgently need to make calm decisions at those times when being calm is most difficult—such as in the midst of emotional crisis. When stakes are highest we feel most triggered to attack. For the sake of our children, our wealth, and our personal well-being, we need to work past negative emotions and put ego in its place. Only then will we find lasting peace and amicable resolutions.

The findings described in this report come from a two-year study of court-based divorce mediation and separation counselling in Saskatoon, Montreal, and Saint John's. This document reviews the issues of concern with respect to divorce and family mediation and some of the findings from social science research which underlie the rationale for non-adversarial approaches to marriage breakdown. It also describes the research design and data base for each of the research modules and sites. It provides a descriptive account of the three courts and their mediation service and approach. In addition, it looks at mediation in Canada more generally, and includes an analysis and evaluation of the outcomes of divorce mediation, with particular reference to the economic situation of couples and their children, to custody and access, to parenting generally, and the impact of mediation on various aspects of the court process.