Co-Mediation that includes utilizing the expertise and feedback of a mental health professional may be your best choice for successfully transitioning from the emotional aspects of relationships which are ending. Similarly, using a financial neutral may also facilitate a reasonable economic resolution for your financial circumstances that is harder to achieve without the insights such an expert brings to the mediation table.

Los Angeles Family Mediation Services offers the only mediation team in southern California that actively promotes co-mediated outcomes, and our team includes lawyer and non-lawyer mediator professionals who regularly train and work together. We ask you to consider whether any of the following signs, potential benefits and motivations for co-mediation resonate under your situation, and so whether this conflict resolution strategy might form the basis for the most positive mediated outcomes for you and your family.

PROTECTING CHILDREN

• You want to minimize the negative impact of your divorce on your children.
• You wanted a mental health professional to become involved anyway, but the other parent was resisting this in a therapeutic setting.
• You understand that it is critical to your children's healthy development to have positive relationships with both parents.
• You realize that a co-parenting relationship is fragile and prioritizing and respecting that relationship is a gift you are giving yourselves, and especially your children.
• You are actually willing to hear what your children say about how the marital or partnership breakup is affecting them, but believe that that dialogue should best occur in a controlled environment which is managed by a therapist or psychologist who is also a mediator.

TEAM SUPPORT

• Your or your soon to be ex spouse does not want the divorce (or partnership dissolution) and one of you needs emotional support and a safe environment to let it happen.
• You have, or the other party has, a history of addiction, mental health, disabilities or special needs in your family and real solutions must address these issues to be workable.
• Your soon-to-be ex spouse is emotionally volatile and while you like the idea of mediation, you suspect that they will not participate, or participate effectively, without emotional support that a trained mental health professional can provide.
• You want assistance from a financial person who will be objective and fair and able to explain your finances to you in ways that help you to feel empowered, and you recognize that such a co-mediator will valuable insights that will maximize dollars for both parties.
• You believe you will be better able to express your wants and needs, and be better understood, within a team setting.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

• You can't talk to your spouse without a fight, and so will benefit from the involvement of someone trained to dial down reactivity and who can help model respectful speech.
• You wish to avoid being trapped by the cycle of conflict that you learned from family of origin, and want to avoid feeling as if you are trapped within these generational cycles of behavior.
• You can't communicate with your impending ex spouse or ex partner without conflict when you are alone with them, but believe that a safe, neutral setting may provide the opportunity for a balanced dialogue and therefore reduced conflict.

POSITIVE AND HOLISTIC RESULTS

• You want your agreement to result in something that makes sense to both parties and brings a clearer understanding of the other party's needs and desires to each of you.
• You want a resolution that WORKS and is lasting.
• You want to create a healthy post divorce relationship.
• You feel that trained neutral experts can give you reliable guidance and support, and that a team approach to resolving your issues will ensure that the agreements you (and the other person) make are made willingly, are clear, and are un-coerced.

REASONABLE COSTS AND ECONOMICS

• You want to save money and avoid costly and prolonged litigation.
• You believe that mediation will ensure financial transparency for both sides, especially with the involvement of a neutral CPA and that both parties will feel less compelled to withhold information.

These are just a few of the reasons why we believe you will find our unique divorce and family co-mediation peacemaking paradigm to be extremely useful in your relationship transition! If any one makes sense, co-mediation is likely your best choice.