It helps to dissolve a marriage by focusing on the future, not by getting stuck casting blame for the past. It seeks to resolve all the pending issues with communication and cooperation, not with adversity or animosity. In an informal and safe environment, a mediator helps parties communicate and prioritize their needs and goals. One of the most difficult aspects for divorcing couples is the experience of disempowerment and frustration with the divorce process, which they do not understand and over which they have no control. In mediation, the parties retain control of the decisions that relate to their own lives and to the lives of their children.
Mediators never make decisions.
The most intimate details of one's future life are not left in the hands of strangers, be it a judge or lawyers battling out strategic positions. Rather, the mediator empowers the couple through the process, facilitating their negotiation towards their own informed and fair agreement, on their own terms, with their own values and priorities. But the benefits of mediation do not stop there. Informed of, but unrestricted by the narrow parameters imposed by the law, mediating parties can use the flexibility of the process to forge a creative agreement, tailored to the unique circumstances and needs of their own family. Not surprisingly, research has shown that compliance and satisfaction with mediated agreements is higher than those imposed upon divorcing couples by a third party, i.e. a judge.