What is Family Mediation?
Family mediation is a future-focused process to help you discuss arrangements for your children. The mediator helps contain the conversation to the issues that need to be dealt with and works with you to generate options. As you reach an agreement, the mediator captures this and supports you to ensure that the agreement is workable moving forward.
Issues Where Mediation Can Help
- Contact arrangements between houses
- Changeover
- Communication
- Child support
- Holidays and special days
- Travel
- School decisions
- Medical decisions
- Managing new partners and extended family
Section 60I Certificates
We are accredited Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners, and are registered with the Attorney General’s Department of Australia. This means we can issue Section 60I Certificates when required.
Accredited Practitioners
We have post-graduate qualifications in family mediation. We are accredited with the Attorney General’s Department as Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners, and also Nationally-Accredited Mediators with the Mediator Standards Board of Australia.
Our Process
The first step in the process is to get in touch to discuss your situation and we can give you some options about possible ways forward. We can invite the other party on your behalf, or you can communicate with them about mediation. Each of you will have a 1:1 session with the mediator, followed by a joint mediation session.
Parenting Plans or Consent Orders
The mediator will provide you with a written agreement from the mediation so that everything is clear, in black and white. You can either sign and date this to make it into a parenting plan which is what you will follow moving forward, or you can take the agreement and make it into legally binding consent orders.
Our Locations
- Carlton
- St Kilda
- Online by Zoom
- Over the Phone
Our Availability
We usually have options for appointments within a week. To check options for appointments in the near future, please send us a message or call our office.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Family Law Act requires people to attempt Family Dispute Resolution (mediation) before they apply to the court to have orders made for parenting matters. Mediation is voluntary, so if someone else initiates mediation and you are invited to the process, you can decide whether or not to attend. The other person may be entitled to request a Section 60I certificate showing that they attempted mediation, but that it did not proceed. Please contact us to discuss your situation, but we also recommend that you get some legal advice before you decide how to respond.
We can give you a reasonably accurate idea of costs up front. Of course, it depends on the other party and how quickly you are able to reach an agreement.
We can send the invitation to your former partner on your behalf if you wish. If they decide not to attend mediation, or if we assess the matter as unsuitable for mediation, we can provide you with a Section 60I Certificate which shows that you did attempt Family Dispute Resolution.
The mediator acts as an impartial facilitator and works to help you reach an agreement. The mediator can help deal with strong emotions and keep the conversation on track. As you develop options and reach an agreement, the mediator keeps track of these and provides you with a written copy at the conclusion of the mediation.
