In the past few months, in addition to mediation and collaborative practice divorce I’ve begun to offer clients the option of co-mediation. In this model, clients have the benefit of two mediators rather than just one. The way that I structure it, one of the mediators is a male attorney (me) and the other mediator is a female therapist. This provides gender balance and also a diversity of professional training, experience and perspective that clients really appreciate.
In my experience, co-mediation is really valuable because of the simple fact that there are two mediators present with different backgrounds and ways of approaching difficult issues. Especially in family law cases, it helps to have the gender balance to prevent the perception of the mediator having a gender bias. Also, having a therapist as a co-mediator really helps with the emotional and family dynamic issues in family law cases.
For client’s convenience I offer day and evening hours at my office in Northfield, Minnesota (507-663-1211). Many times I’ve found that clients really appreciate meeting from, say, 6 P.M.—8 P.M. or 6 P.M.—9 P.M. so that they don’t have to miss work to attend mediation.
Other professionals in the Northfield area with experience providing co-mediation include attorney Brad Frago (W. Bradley Frago of the Frago & Lasswell law office) and therapist Michelle Millenacker.
Author of this post: Carl Arnold
