Family Mediation is the only kind of mediation I do professionally. I specialize in providing professional support for Do-It-Yourself divorces in addition to assisting couples in conflict. I have helped many couples and ex-couples resolve issues about parenting plans, separation, divorce, child support, alimony, and property division. My book “The Guide to Low-Cost Divorce in Virginia,” available from Amazon for $4.99, is a great place to start if you are considering divorce. In addition to marriage mediation, divorce mediation, and co-parenting mediation, I can help with elder care planning and internal family business disputes. There are five family mediators in my group practice. We offer a flat fee plan.
I began doing family mediation in 1999 and have worked with a wide variety of couples.
In my roles as a parent (married, then divorced, and then, years later, remarried), step-parent, foster parent, friend, counselor, and mediator, I have extensive experience with divorce. I know the emotional, financial, and legal aspects of family distress, separation, and divorce. I have helped many ex-couples renegotiate parenting plans when children got older, when parents changed jobs or moved to different neighborhoods, or when a family’s situation changed in other ways. More recently, I have discovered the joys of marital mediation — helping couples resolve issues and improve their marriages, instead of just helping people minimize the damage when it is too late to save the marriage.
In a confidential setting, I help each party to communicate what is important to him or her and to hear what is important to the other party. I facilitate the conversation to help them identify the issues that need to be resolved, focus on one issue at a time, brainstorm ideas about ways to resolve issues, discuss the possible solutions, come to agreement about parenting plans, financial, and/or other issues, prepare a draft of their emerging agreement, and review, revise, and (usually) sign the agreement. I do recommend that the parties each have an attorney review the draft agreement before they commit themselves to it.
B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College
M.A. in Psychology from Columbia University
Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from University of Virginia.
In addition, I have completed the training and apprenticeship program developed by the Supreme Court of Virginia and earned certification to mediate cases referred from Juvenile and Domestic Courts and from Circuit Courts.
$250 per hour for others in my group practice; $350/hour for my time. Sometimes we accept less if clients really cannot afford our standard rates. We also offer a discounted Flat Fee plan. We accept cash, checks, and credit card payments.
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