Dreaming about the Healing Power of Family Mediation 

reaching toward the sky

Recently a business friend of mine, Melanie Springs of Sisarina, challenged a number of people not only to dream big but also to say out loud what dreams they planned to pursue. 

My dream: Everyone  in the U.S., Canada, and a number of other countries will know that if people need to divorce, they should contact a Professional Family Mediator to help them make a good plan.

A couple seeking divorce  should NOT start by contacting two litigious lawyers. Lawyers who like to see people fight can make the battles long and expensive. That makes both parties frightened, angry, and miserable. Worse yet, it puts their children into a family war zone. 

Family mediation has been around since the 1970’s and 1980’s. The mediation process for restructuring families is much healthier and much less expensive than adversarial litigation. It also has considerably better long-term outcomes for children. Dr. Robert Emery demonstrated that a few hours of mediation at the time of divorce kept most couples out of court. Those few hours also had positive consequences for children that could be measured twelve years later! More recent research confirms the value of mediation for resolving family issues. Nevertheless, a huge number of people have never heard of family mediation. I want to change that.

My dream is to educate the public so effectively that the value of mediation becomes common knowledge. Everyone will know that litigation is the last resort, not the first approach to restructuring a family. 

Many people who share my passion for peace-making, members of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, will help make this dream come true. America’s children and families will benefit greatly. 

Nothing here should be construed as legal advice. The author, Virginia L Colin, Ph.D., is a Professional Family Mediator certified by the Virginia Supreme Court. She is not an attorney or a therapist. For a free consultation about whether family mediation would be helpful for you, contact her at mediatorQ@gmail.com or 703-864-2101.

Research cited:

Emery, R.E., Laumann-Billings, L., Waldron, M., Sbarra, D.A., and Dillon, P. (2001). Child custody mediation and litigation: Custody, contact, and co-parenting 12 years after initial dispute resolution. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 323-332.

Shaw, L.A. (2010), Divorce Mediation Outcome Research: A Meta-Analysis. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 27, 447 – 467.