We are delighted to announce that Lorraine McNay has completed her Family Mediation Council (FMC) accreditation and is now a fully accredited mediator at Family Matters.
Lorraine started her journey to become a mediator by completing the Family Mediators Association’s (FMA) foundation course in 2019.
Before this, her career had been focused on supporting families with complex needs, working in multi-disciplinary teams in Leeds Children’s Services for over 20 years.
Joining Family Matters in June 2020, Lorraine brings an empathetic and pragmatic approach to her second career that enables her to assess clients’ needs and clearly explain their mediation pathway. Before qualifying as a mediator, Lorraine worked with Family Matters’ administration team for part of her week whilst training, gaining a solid understanding of the experience of the mediation process from a client’s perspective from start to finish.
Lorraine says that starting her traineeship in 2020, at the height of COVID, was challenging as all work was online. However, she found it rewarding. Lorraine recognises her learning journey, particularly regarding financial mediations, and is proud of her achievements. She says:
“I am excited to continue to support clients through the mediation process online and face-to-face. I particularly enjoy the structure of financial mediations and appreciate the ease that online meetings offer to clients who often say they feel relaxed at home and able to find information easily.”
Many clients prefer to meet face-to-face. Lorraine recognises this and is confident to support clients in this type of mediation, saying that she thinks the mediation process that participants engage in can be empowering, especially for those who are not confident about finances.
“It’s extremely rewarding seeing a client grow in confidence, make informed decisions and agreements that they are comfortable to live with and also when moving forward to enable a co-parenting partnership to remain”, says Lorraine.
She continues to value the importance of children having a relationship with each of their parents if it is safe to do so and views the mediation process as essential for parents to develop their co-parenting partnership for their own benefit and that of their children.
Lorraine strongly believes that children thrive when their parents communicate effectively and keep their children’s best interests at the heart of their decisions and believes that mediation is the best process for parents in any kind of conflict, whether about finances or child arrangements.
