A mediated agreement is your agreement. One you have worked out together that takes into account your family's special needs.

Mediation gives you a chance to negotiate a temporary arrangement that you can try out before making your final decision. This way it can either become part of your agreement, or a tool to identify areas that may require a different solution. You do not have to have children to benefit from mediation.

Mediation is also an option for people who have exiting agreements. Circumstances often change after an agreement has been signed--children grow up, people move, or employment status changes.

Mediation can help you...

• Preserve the health of the family
• Restructure relationships between family members
• Understand how separation effects you and your children
• Prepare a parenting plan to meet your needs and benefit from community programs and resources

Mediation does not take the place of your lawyer. Participants will be encouraged to maintain independent legal advice throughout the process and review the final mediated agreement with their lawyer before signing.

"Coparenting depends on setting up new emotional boundaries and allowing your children to have their own emotions, identity, and choices. It requires leaving the past in the past, and focusing on the present and the future. Most importantly, it requires never forgetting the visions that you are working together for your children's greatest benefits."--E. Hickey and E. Dalton, Healing Wounded Hearts