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The Family Mediation Service is dedicated to helping couples that are intending to separate or divorce to reach acceptable agreements that allow a split with the minimum possible suffering for all members of the family.
Our Service relies on professionals certified by the Catalunya Mediation Centre.
Attention is given to the demands of couples who find themselves going through separation or divorce and who want to find a solution or agreement with the help of a neutral and qualified third party.
The most frequent requests are related to the following situations:
To function well, mediation generally requires four basic identifiable characteristics:
Willingness
This characteristic affects the participants as much as the mediator and is an issue throughout the whole process. If the participants aren’t willing then mediation isn’t possible. This willingness has to be shown from the start of the mediation until the end. This means that participants can voluntarily call a halt at any point during the mediation. Equally, the mediator can end the mediation if the specific circumstances of the case make that necessary.
Confidentiality
The content of the sessions and the information that is divulged during mediation remain confidential between participants and the mediator. In theory, the only detail that should emerge from mediations is its outcome, either agreement or lack of agreement.
Legal Act 1/2001, 15 March, on family mediation in Catalunya establishes that both the mediator and participants must ensure confidentiality is not breached. This obligation is only lifted for statistical reasons or if the mediator believes there is “a threat to the life or the physical or psychological safety of a person or criminally prosecutable facts”.
Impartiality
It is a characteristic related to the mediator and to the development of the mediation process. The mediator endeavours to engender the best possible balance between the participants, without favouring either of them, but encouraging and aiding the involvement of the two sides equally.
Neutrality
Refers to the impartiality of the mediator in regard to the final agreement, in the sense that the outcome of the mediation has to be totally as a result of the effort and collaboration of the participants. The point of view of the mediator shouldn’t influence in any way the contents of the final agreement, which the participants have to feel is totally their own.
