There are numerous methods for divorce mediation. They all have the same goal: healthy, effective communication between parties, guided by an impartial mediator, leading to an agreement both parties accept.
Proposal-Focused Mediation, developed for high conflict couples, is used and promoted by its creator, Bill Eddy, a founding board member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators.
The distinguishing feature of this form of mediation is its orientation toward concrete problem-solving proposals generated by each party. Concerns and conflicts are transformed into proposals for solution, which are thoroughly discussed and evaluated, sometimes with the addition of information from experts, as needed. Simply, the focus is: “What are we going to do about it?”
While the mediator controls the mediation process, the parties control topics and agenda. Strategies for the future take precedence over disputes about the past. Past issues are acknowledged but managed through proposals leading to agreements about what will happen in the future.
The process itself models healthy and effective conflict management strategies that the parties could use as they deal with their new family structure over the years to come.
I can do this with you, if you’d like. My over twenty years of counseling couples in conflict, in addition to special training in mediation, prepare me for this work.
Let’s do it!