Brad and Sophia came into divorce mediation with ALL of their ducks in a row!…They had done as much homework before an initial session as any couple I had worked with in over 40 years. How did they do it? They worked on their parenting agreement first, as, to both of them, it was the […]
When selecting one of the best, most experienced divorce mediators, you need to be sure that her or his skills are “johnny up-to-date”. As a co-founder of the Mass Council on Family Mediation in 1982, I am one of the two longest established and most experienced and family mediation in the Commonwealth. We, the MCFM, […]
With the divorce rate at fifty percent, more or less, many individuals who recouple decide that being “nonmarried” feels more secure and even more committed than remarrying. Still, more and more couples are coming into Janet Miller Wiseman Mediation and Counseling Services to design Mediated Cohabitation Agreements. In these agreements, couples design their financial arrangements. […]
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Preserving the Family Nest
Preserving the Family Nest for Children of Divorce Early in my career, I read an article in the New York Times Magazine describing a divorced family, a mother and father in their 70s, both of whom had remarried, and were vacationing with their adult children and their six grandchildren on the French Riviera. It could […]
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Grandparents Visitation Mediated
It is December, the holidays are coming up, ‘tis the season to be merry and joyous. But, not for these two families with considerations around grandparents visitation and access. Annette, and her daughter, Marianne brought Marianne’s brother, Dan, into the office for family mediation to discuss their own visits with his son, Ben, 8 years […]
Will Liz or Leslie be their Prospective Baby’s Birth Mother? Liz and Leslie made a series of appointments for marriage mediation. They had been a couple for seven years and married for two of those years. They had decided that their careers, finances and home were in place and stable enough to have their first […]
Whether you are beginning a friendship, a prospective relationship or you’re in a relationship that is becoming oh so stale, these twenty ways to introduce and keep romance in your relationship are bound to help. Let’s begin with the story of a couple in Havana, Cuba, with whom I was staying in an Airbnb type […]
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Collaborative Divorce Mediation
Eliza and Karl came in this summer for collaborative divorce mediation. They were one of the most cooperative couples presenting for mediation in my thirty-eight years of mediation practice. They had sold their marital home in the Boston suburbs in the last few months and deposited the balance in a “joint child-related expense account” checking […]
Changing the Goal in Marriage Counseling From “Do We Have Another Child” to “Where Do We Go on Vacation?” in Decision Mediation Laura and Caleb were a bright and thoughtful couple in their late 30s and early 40s. They were established in their careers, she as a radiologist and he as an environmental field engineer. […]
Colleagues and friends frequently ask me “your work must be so hard with all those angry divorcing clients?” To tell the truth, most divorcing clients are gracious to one another, thoughtful, ready to problem-solve, frequently laughing together. Often enough, when this is not the case, a couple presents before they are prepared to divorce. Let’s […]