We are pleased to announce that Mediate.com, the largest information source for all types of mediation in the country, has recently published an article by Thurman W. Arnold entitled "The Peacemaking Option for Divorce and Dissolution of Domestic Partnerships: How Family Scientists Support Interest Based Conciliation and What That Means for Separating Couples".
Excepts:
"Family scientists have gathered considerable information that suggests that peacemaking solutions to divorce and breakup might offer a brave new option for people transitioning out of relationship. Peacemaking offers a “controlled” alternative to the chaos of adversarial struggle. While peacemaking lawyers are not therapists, the process that peacemaking facilitates is itself entirely therapeutic because it allows both parties to concentrate on their felt interests and the interests of their families. It a 'controlled process,' managed by the parties themselves and orchestrated by a peacemaker."
"Adversarial divorce does have devastating consequences for children, but peacemaking divorce possibly need not have. Social scientists have learned that parents who divorce are subject to “inter-generational transmission,” an increased likelihood that divorce will happen to them too. For instance, researchers have found that parental divorce increases the chances of a daughter’s marriage ending within the first five years by as much as 70%. Incredibly, if both the husband’s and the wife’s parents have been divorced, these odds increase by 189%. This has the effect that for children’s marriages to be successful such children of divorce may need to consciously guard against behaviors that might undermine their marriages. How parents model divorce for these children has lasting implications for their children’s success in doing so. Understanding this common reality is transformative for the next generation."
At DFMS it is our goal to be leaders in the field of Mediation as applied to complex family law matters. This includes informing not only the public about alternatives to traditional litigation, but also developing interdisciplinary approaches that may be used by mediation professionals themselves.