Almost 45% of US divorces involve children. Child custody and visitation are highly emotional issues that will deeply affect the family, including its physical, mental, and emotional well-being and the strength of its relationships. Despite the importance of the questions decided in family court, seventy to seventy-five percent of California cases involve parties without lawyers. …
Using collaborative law in dispute resolution, especially in family law, helps parties find solutions that meet their needs and the needs of the other parties. Collaborative law, also known as collaborative practice, is a practice of law that shifts from an adversarial mindset to a collaborative mindset. It is most commonly practiced in family law …
Family mediation evolved separately from civil and commercial mediation because it addressed specific needs and concerns, and faced different challenges. Unlike in civil mediation, where the subject of mediation can be any claim traditionally litigated in tort or contract, family mediation deals chiefly with dividing marital assets, determining child custody and visitation, and dealing with …
Read moreWhat Commercial Mediators Can Learn From Divorce Mediation
After separation and during the divorce process, you likely have become angry, resentful, and hostile towards your spouse. When our relationships become threatening, such as a damaged marriage relationship, we protect ourselves by forming a negative image of the other person. This negative image helps us live on with our lives, without experiencing psychological disintegration. …
Read moreThe Healing Power of Reconciliation Moving Past Divorce
One day I was meeting with a husband and wife for their second or third divorce mediation session. They were high-powered, both in upper management positions. I thought that their family mediation would be like a business meeting. But no!At the beginning of this session, the husband leans over shaking his finger at me about …
The High Conflict Institute has developed a new method for handling high conflict family law cases, titled New Ways for Families™More information is available at our website. The purpose of this article is to address how New Ways can be used in domestic violence cases to reduce the conflict between the parents, move both parents …
If you are contemplating divorce, in the midst of a divorce, or already have a divorce decree in hand, you know pressures of the legal process do not compare to the emotional turmoil you are experiencing. The emotional pressures can be quelled when you give a meaningful and complete apology. It has the effect of …
Read moreDealing with the Pains of Divorce through Meaningful and Complete Apology
Everybody wants to be a hero. Joseph Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces concluded many if not most cultures’ traditional stories, fairytales, and myths embody an element of “hero.” Campbell found these stories often follow a similar plot—the hero’s journey—where the hero arises from his or her mundane surroundings to experience something …
Read moreFairytales & Myths Applying The Hero Story To Mediation
People often think of divorce as the end of a relationship between spouses. In some cases, it may be. But the reality is that where there are minor children from the marriage, a relationship—though changed—endures until the youngest child reaches adulthood. Learning to deal with this new reality is a large part of a successful …
Read moreSuccessful Post-Dissolution Co-Parenting: The Mediator’s Role
This fall I attended one of the outdoor concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a spectacular affair—beginning with the wonderful sounds of classical music and ending with a fantastic light show. The concert featured a local university marching band as well as a guest appearance from a world …
Read moreOrchestrating Settlement – A Symphony of Sound and Color
