Online family mediation. Who is it for? Well, maybe you.

You and your husband have been separated for 8 months.  Because of work, he has had to move to another town. He now lives 160 miles away from you and your children. All things considered, you are all coping pretty well. You speak regularly and he sees the children as often as time allows.  You both want to divorce, and have talked about mediation. But neither of you can see how you would find the time to travel to a mediator who is accessible to both of you.

It would be relatively easy for each of you to find a solicitor in your local area. On the other hand, neither of you wants to go down that route. You’ve seen what has happened to many of your friends and family who have divorced. You want to avoid making the same mistake. You don’t want to make things more difficult than they already are for your children. You worry that seeing solicitors may cause problems between you and cost you both a small fortune. You feel trapped into doing something you really don’t want to do.

Online mediation gets round this. Working online means mediating via a webcam – you in your workplace or home, your spouse in theirs, and the mediator in their own. Each participant and the mediator needs a computer, tablet or a Smartphone, a good internet connection, a comfortable place to sit and, most importantly, privacy.

Online family mediation means you don’t have to spend time and money travelling to a mediator’s consulting room. It provides an opportunity to schedule meetings in ways which minimise the disruption to your working and home lives. It may even be possible to schedule meetings over lunch breaks. Suddenly, taking time off work, or worrying about fitting meetings around school delivery or collection, become less of a problem.

This way of mediating may also suit those who live together in a town with no mediator. And couples who live in different countries but want an English divorce  – ex pats in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, USA and Spain.

Online working makes mediation more accessible to people who are housebound, those with mobility challenges and those suffering from anxiety –  common to many going through relationship breakdown.

Anderson Mediation was the first family mediation service in England to offer to help divorcing couples and separating parents through online mediation. Our experience means we understand not just the benefits, but also how to minimise the technical and other risks that can arise.

With our service, we first ask each participant to complete and return our online client information form. Once each has completed a form, we meet each  separately, online, for an individual 60 minute private consultation. After that, we schedule the first joint session – also 60 minutes – when the mediator and both participants are online. Further meetings take place by agreement.

If you’d like to find out more, please give us a call on +44 1473 487427 Monday-Friday 9.00-17.30 hrs GMT +1, and Saturday 10.00-13.00 hrs GMT +1.