Family Matters’ managing director and highly experience mediator, Juliette Dalrymple has responded to recent press criticism of family mediation that she believes is completely unjustified.
A recent article in the Evening Standard says that former criminal barrister Laura Rosefield, who runs a divorce consultancy in London, and forensic psychologist Dr Angela Smith have said that ‘destructive divorce mediation can leave people vomiting from stress’.
Juliette says the comment is completely unfair and that good mediation services, such as those offered by Family Matters, offer individual appointments to assess people’s suitability for mediation.
“Our mediators always look at levels of stress and will not start a mediation if there are significant mental health issues, or will inform the client if they feel that mediation is not suitable for them. We also offer all of our clients separate arrival, departure and waiting areas. To suggest that clients are vomiting in the streets is staggering – and if they are, then they should talk to their mediators about the effectiveness – and safety – of the services they are offered. There are good and bad mediators, as there are in every profession and there are mediations that work well and are successful and those that don’t succeed. It seems highly unprofessional to me to be condemning an emerging, government supported, process by what could be a case of bad practice or lack of communication between a client and their mediator. Mediation is about reducing conflict in the divorce or separation process, but of course conflict makes good media copy – as it has in this case!”
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