Thinking of Divorce Mediation in 2018? Get Ready…Get Set…Go!

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year to finally move ahead with your divorce? Sometimes couples decide to separate but then find themselves stymied about exactly how to proceed. Even after a New Year’s resolution, daily life has a way of intervening. If you are stuck wondering how to begin the divorce process, consider beginning with mediation. Here are a few steps to help you move ahead:

Get Ready: Decide whether or not you are good candidates for mediation.

All types of divorcing couples, from those with few assets and few issues to those with a high net worth and multiple complex problems, can successfully use mediation to minimize the stress and cost of divorce. The process provides greater personal control and increased privacy. These three questions can help you decide if mediation is right for you:

Are both of you willing to work together to resolve your disputes?

It’s the willingness that is key here. Even spouses who aren’t on particularly good terms with one another can benefit from mediation if they share the goals of collaboration and compromise. A skilled mediator can help you overcome any communication obstacles.

Are both of you interested in win-win solutions, rather than a win-lose outcome?

For those with the right mind-set, mediation can maximize positive results for both parties. If one or both of you is harboring a lot of anger, you may need to do some work with a therapist first to ensure that bitterness or a desire for revenge does not get in the way of the best possible outcome.

Is your marital history free of domestic violence or abuse?

If one spouse feels intimidated by the other, divorce mediation is less likely to be effective. If any restraining orders are in effect, face-to-face negotiations will not be possible. Couples who are not embroiled in an abusive dynamic, however, are likely to benefit from mediation. If you are not sure which category you fall into, don’t automatically assume that mediation is not be an option. Sometimes the solution is to substitute a more structured process. A family law attorney can help you assess your situation.

Get Set: Agree on the Process and Choose a Mediator

If you and your spouse are in agreement that divorce mediation is the right approach, then you can move on to selecting a mutually agreeable mediator. If, however, your spouse is less than enthusiastic, don’t give up yet. It’s possible that after receiving additional information and reassurances, they will reconsider. There’s a multitude of information available on the internet, so beware of overwhelming a resistant spouse with too much. Try to hone in on the features that people really need to understand in order to make an informed choice:

Purpose: Many people misunderstand the purpose of divorce mediation. Some think it is like marriage counseling, which strives to bring people back together. Others think it is like arbitration, which requires turning over decision-making to someone else. Mediation is neither of these things; it is for couples who have decided to divorce, but would prefer to resolve their issues out of court with the help of a neutral third party.

Process:  The primary thing to understand about the mediation process is how it differs from litigation. Make sure your spouse understands that mediation is less contentious and more flexible than litigation, is often speedier, and can result in significant financial savings. Many participants appreciate the fact that unlike litigation, mediation preserves confidentiality. If you have children, you can point out the potentially enormous benefits to them of reducing conflict and preserving privacy.

If your spouse is still hesitant after you have made these points, ask if they would at least consider meeting with a mediator to get more information.

Go: Prepare your Checklist

If you have agreed on the process and selected a mediator together, then it’s time to work on your checklist. Your mediator will provide you with more specifics, but you can save time by being ready to go right from the outset. You will need to collect:

  • Basic financial information, including recent W-2s, tax returns for the past 3 years, and complete financial Information about any businesses either or both of you own or operate;
  • Information about your employment status and history, particularly if either of you is unemployed or underemployed;
  • A detailed monthly budget of living expenses;
  • Information about coverage and cost of insurance (medical, life, auto, and other);
  • Copies of any prenuptial or postnuptial agreements you may have;
  • Evidence of any child support or alimony payments from previous marriages;
  • A complete list of your assets and debts, including dates of acquisition, form of title, and source of funds;
  • Information about any children you have together, including ages, schedules, any special needs, and any disputes between the two of you regarding custody or parenting time;
  • Documentation of any special issues, such as medical conditions or special financial circumstances.

For a more detailed look at what you will need, see: How to Prepare for Mediation – a Checklist.

Now you are ready to begin. Keep in mind though that mediation requires patience. Stay focused on the process and committed to the idea that this year will be the beginning of your new life.

Whether you are ready to schedule your first mediation session or are still exploring the process, the experienced and compassionate mediators at Weinberger Mediation Center can help. Contact us today for an initial consultation.

Jeff and Yvonne Build a Parenting Plan using Child Inclusive Mediation

In our last post, we discussed how a couple with three children between 12 and 15 years of age made the decision to pursue child inclusive mediation (CI). Both Jeff, a high school math teacher and basketball coach, and Yvonne, an IT professional, wanted primary residential custody of 15-year-old Kyle and 12-year-old twins, Katie and Kayla. Their mediator, Brian Hill, suggested that they try CI, a process that brings a mutually agreed upon child specialist into the mediation. Yvonne and Jeff agreed that this seemed like a positive way to move forward with a successful parenting plan. They chose Dr. Jasmine Landers as their specialist. Read more

Parenting Time:  Which Dispute Resolution Process Fits Your Family?

Couple meeting with divorce mediatorRecently we have been discussing different procedural options for resolving child custody disputes in New Jersey. We followed one family through litigation and another through mediation with a child-focused approach. Today we will look at a third option, child-inclusive mediation. Read more

Parenting Time: Derek and Megan Pursue Child Focused Mediation

Last month we discussed the predicament of Alan and Cherie, a couple who took their parenting dispute to court. Each of them hired a separate child custody evaluator, and while neither parent was dissatisfied with the ultimate result, both were highly dissatisfied with the level of conflict involved and with both the complexity and the high cost of the procedures. Today, we will look at another couple with a parenting dispute who have decided to take a different approach. Read more

Parenting Time: Alan and Cherie Go to Court

Today we are going to look more closely at Alan and Cherie, a couple we introduced in our last post.[i] Alan, a 45-year-old executive for a fast food restaurant chain, and Cherie, a 43-year-old small business owner, have decided to end their 15-year-marriage. They separated about 6 months ago when Alan moved out of the family home and into a separate apartment. Alan and Cherie are currently involved in a parenting time dispute regarding 11-year-old Alexis and 9-year-old Mike. Let’s see how mediation can help them. Read more

Resolving Parenting Disputes in Mediation: Three Families Consider the Options

In our last post, we discussed the documented benefits of child-focused mediation and child-inclusive mediation in divorce. In our next few posts, we will present the stories of three divorcing couples, each of whom decides to approach their parenting disputes in different ways. These families are fictional, but their stories are derived from various real life scenarios. One family will go through a court process, one will go through mediation with a child-focused approach, and the third will go through child-inclusive mediation. Read more

Keeping the Focus on Children in Parenting Mediation

If you are a parent embroiled in a disagreement about post-divorce custody or parenting time, you may be wondering how to get out of the conflict loop. Perhaps an attorney has told you that it is important to take a child focused approach. You may also have learned that the law allows children to have some input into which parent they would rather live with, if the child is old enough and mature enough to reach an intelligent decision. But how much input? And how old is old enough? Read more

Thinking of Divorce Mediation in 2018? Get Ready…Get Set…Go!

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year to finally move ahead with your divorce? Sometimes couples decide to separate but then find themselves stymied about exactly how to proceed. Even after a New Year’s resolution, daily life has a way of intervening. If you are stuck wondering how to begin the divorce process, consider beginning with mediation. Read more

Using Post-Judgment Mediation to Modify Parenting Agreements

Many parents successfully launch a plan for sharing time with children after divorce, only to find that the plan blows up a few years later. Children grow older, parents may change jobs or careers, some remarry, some move away. Sometimes rifts that have been slowly expanding for months or years threaten to become full blown chasms around the holidays. This can put further stress on families who are already coping with increased pressure. Post-judgment mediation of parenting issues can help these families get back on track.

For many children of divorced parents, the holidays are less than calm and easy under the best of circumstances. Instead of two or three uninterrupted weeks baking cookies and drinking cocoa, they may have to split their time in a complicated schedule, or travel out-of-state to spend time with a parent they rarely see. Children with amicable parents may relish being able to spend some vacation time with each of them. Children with parents who are not able to let go of past hurts, on the other hand, often sense the tension. Such children may feel a responsibility to reassure each parent of their equal love. They might feel the need to perform perfectly, and to conform precisely to whatever schedule is in place, to avoid any chance of upsetting either parent. No child deserves this kind of burden.

A Smooth Start for a Reconstructed Family

Gina’s parents, Brianna and Joe, have always gotten along pretty well. When they divorced five years ago, they decided to continue living within a few miles of each other. At the time, Gina was barely five years old. She has little memory of the holidays before she began spending half her time at mom’s house and half at dad’s. Her normal routine was to celebrate Christmas eve with one parent before returning to the other parent’s house to wake up on Christmas morning. After presents and brunch, it was back to the first parent’s house for dinner. It may have been a little complicated, but it was all she knew, and it was a way for her to celebrate the holiday fully with both her families.

A New Development Threatens the Harmony

Then last Spring, Brianna found a much better job that was nearly two hours away. Reluctantly, she decided to move. Suddenly, Gina found herself spending every other weekend, plus spring break and summer vacation, in a new neighborhood. She doesn’t want to stop visiting her mom, in fact, she wants to see her more, but she also doesn’t want to change schools. At the end of the year, though, she will graduate from her K-5 school. Her mom wants her to start 6th grade in the new neighborhood. Her dad does not.

Gina doesn’t know what she wants. What she does know is that for the first time since their divorce, her parents have begun to argue. They rarely exchange harsh words in her presence, but she can sense a new coldness in her previously warm extended family—and she knows why. Her parents have talked to her about the two options open for next year. They have been careful not to reveal that they are fighting over the options, but Gina knows. She can feel it.

Now winter break has arrived. Last night, Gina was upstairs in bed at her dad’s house when she heard him yelling on the phone. She ran to her door and opened it a crack to listen. It was obvious what he was yelling about. “The usual plan won’t work anymore,” he said. “We need to start alternating holidays. No running back and forth with two hour drives in the freezing cold!”

Gina crept back to bed, but she couldn’t sleep. Why couldn’t they just figure out how to fix this? She didn’t want either of them to be lonely on Christmas, but she was only one person. She couldn’t be in two places at a time.

Brianna and Joe Go to Parenting Mediation

Brianna and Joe are understandably going through a difficult time with their co-parenting arrangement, but they are losing sight of what is most important—their child’s emotional stability and happiness. They realize that they need to stop the arguing, not only for Gina’s sake, but also to minimize their own emotional stress. Brianna, not knowing where else to turn, decides to consult with a family law attorney, who listens to her story and immediately recommends parenting mediation.

Mediation, the attorney explained, isn’t just for setting up parenting plans when parents first separate or divorce. Like many parents, Joe and Brianna didn’t have any trouble with their initial plan. They reached a settlement agreement easily and filed it in court. As they have learned, however, things can change. Mediation can help parents decide how to address such changes with a minimum of conflict.

Joe agreed with Brianna that mediation sounded like a good idea. They chose a mediator together, and scheduled a session right away.

A Few Tips from the Mediator

Before delving into specifics, their mediator, Ms. Schumann, gave Brianna and Joe a few tips for how to change their approach. “I’m not on either parent’s side,” she stressed, “and I don’t give legal advice. These are just a few general suggestions that other people have found helpful.”:

  • First and foremost, step back, stay calm, and stop yelling at each other. If you can’t keep your cool, then put things in writing instead of talking face to face. If you need to vent, see a therapist.
  • For the short term, focus on the giving spirit of the holidays, instead of on the competition for Gina’s time.
  • Think about establishing your own separate traditions, regardless of exactly what day in the calendar they may fall on. The winter holiday season in this country is long. Be creative.
  • If you can get back to being friends, consider spending part of the holidays together—nothing too stressful, but maybe a low-key afternoon outing of some kind. This kind of interaction wouldn’t work for many families, but it seems like it might work for yours. If you decide to try it though, make it only about Gina, and agree to table any difficult discussions for the time-being. The purpose is to alleviate her anxiety about the increasing hostility between you.
  • For the longer term, remember that whatever school schedule you decide to adopt for Gina, you must keep her best interests at the forefront.

Moving Forward in Peace

After their first mediation session, Joe and Brianna made a pact to table all discussions about next year until after January 1st. They scheduled another mediation session to broach this topic in late January. In the meantime, they would concentrate only on making the holidays as happy and stress-free as possible for Gina.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of parents working together to support their children. This importance can become starkly obvious during holidays and long school breaks. Don’t let your kids feel responsible for keeping the peace in the family. That’s not their job; it’s yours.

Whether your holiday schedule is in tatters or simply needs a tune-up, don’t hesitate to contact a mediator for help. The family law mediators at the Weinberger Mediation Center wish you peace and joy this holiday season and all year long.

Thankfulness and Mediation

If you are going through a divorce, especially now as the holidays are arriving, you may be finding it difficult to cultivate thankfulness. Even under the best of circumstances, divorce is stressful. The holiday season can actually make some people feel worse, because of the high expectations that this should be a happy and festive time of year. Still, if you have agreed with your spouse to use a collaborative method like divorce mediation to restructure your family, you do indeed have at least one thing to be grateful for.

Benefits of Mediation

Taking your divorce out of the courtroom can go a long way toward alleviating stress. Litigation tends to force divorcing spouses to face off as enemies, increasing hostility and conflict. By contrast, couples who choose to approach issues through a collaborative process can preserve the positive aspects of their relationship. If you have children, this can be a big step toward making their holidays happier.

The many advantages of mediation include the following:

  • The process is more flexible than adhering to crowded court calendars and formal court procedures.
  • It is often much faster than going through the courts.
  • It is usually cheaper, and sometimes much cheaper, than litigation.
  • The participants maintain control over the results.
  • Participants are able to preserve confidentiality.
  • The focus on mutually beneficial results tends to reduce conflict.
  • Children benefit when parents maintain positive interactions and open lines of communication.

Practicing Thankfulness is Worth the Effort

Mediation is a small consolation prize for the often overwhelming feelings of loss connected to divorce. Science tells us though, that changing focus is likely to be worth the effort. People who intentionally and regularly practice thankfulness not only experience more positive emotions, they also tend to sleep better, and they may even have stronger immune systems.

Harvard Medical School’s Healthbeat newsletter recounts research on the positive effects of practicing gratitude. In one study, psychologists Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough asked three groups of participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on one of three topics. The first group wrote about events that had inspired feeling of gratitude. The second group wrote about daily irritations. The third group also wrote about events that had affected them, but without any direction to focus on either positive or negative effects. After 10 weeks of participation, the “gratitude” group expressed increased positive feelings and greater optimism. The researchers also found that this group was exercising more and had fewer doctor’s visits than the group that had  expressed irritations.

Another leading researcher in positive psychology, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, found that people who were directed to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude once a week to someone they had not previously thanked for an act of kindness immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness. Still other studies show that expressing gratitude for another person not only builds positive feelings toward that person, but can also make it easier to speak up to that person about problems in the relationship. This latter point may hold a helpful tip for mediation participants. While it might seem counterintuitive, focusing on what has been good in your marriage could make it easier to stand up for yourself in mediation.

Why Practicing Thankfulness, or “Gratitude,” is Effective

There is a pretty simple explanation for why expressing gratitude might make someone feel better. It’s a matter a focus. When we are so overwhelmed with sadness and worry that such feelings block out the positive aspects of our lives, it’s easy to go into a downward spiral. Practicing gratitude helps us refocus on what we have instead of what we lack—and it seems to work even if the only reason we are doing it is because someone else told us to! So give it a try. You have nothing to lose but a few minutes of time each day, and the benefits could be tremendous.

How to Cultivate Gratitude

Healthbeat suggests a few ways to cultivate gratitude on a regular basis, including the following:

  • Writing a thank-you note. Is there someone who has stood by your side throughout your marital strife? Express your appreciation of that person with a note. You can send it, or you can read it to the person aloud. This method has the side benefit of making the other person happier as well!
  • Thanking someone mentally. Even thinking about how grateful you are to have someone to lean on can generate positive emotions.
  • Keeping a gratitude journal. Taking a few minutes each day to jot down things you are grateful for is a tried and true method.
  • Praying. If you are religious, prayer can be a wonderful way of cultivating gratitude, and the holidays are an ideal time for renewing faith.
  • Meditating. If you favor a more secular spiritual practice, mindfulness may be the perfect choice. Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for maintaining sanity during divorce.  One variation on mindfulness meditation focuses on gratitude. You don’t need to set aside huge amounts of time for this. Joaquín, a positive psychology writer, points out that you can practice gratitude meditation in the amount of time it takes to brew your morning coffee. And as Healthbeat notes, gratitude can celebrate the smallest of things—the warmth of the sun, a pleasant sound, or the aroma of that eagerly anticipated first cup.

Even in our most troubled times, it is worth expressing thankfulness. No wonder we have an entire holiday dedicated to it!

The top mediation professionals at Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group, LLC’s Mediation Center are deeply thankful for the privilege of helping those going through divorce arrive at a place of peace and joy. Contact us today for an initial consultation.