Articles around family mediation, advice on separation and divorce, and general guidance to help you through the difficult process
Never has a period of time brought forth such use of the word “unprecedented”. The use is of course justified as these are times for which there simply is no road map or blueprint. Lockdown is a situation that was only put in place previously during airstrikes during World War II. Even then the situation was not entirely the same. I have already written guidance for those self-isolating in a house with a partner they’re separating from. I now want…
Read More
Separation: couples self isolating in the same house Well now here is a post that I didn’t think I would ever type. Even a few weeks ago could we have imagined the fact that large parts of the world would be not able to leave their houses? It is a challenging situation for many: concerns about the health implications; worries about reduced income or businesses going under. I appreciate all of that. One of my biggest concerns is for couples…
Read More
I recently came across a really interesting article based on a survey looking at parents staying together for the sake of their children The survey was called out by Directline. Some parts of this survey really jumped out at me and I wanted to add some thoughts on them: I can see the generational difference in how long parents stayed together but even amongst younger parents it was still 3 years. Often in family mediation one of the things…
Read More
Recently I added a blog post aimed at giving more information to those thinking about mediation and collating various pieces of information that are contained across the extensive range of blogs on the LKW Family Mediation website This got me thinking about whether those coming into mediation, or going through a separation generally, really understand the full range of things that can be talked about in mediation. So the list below is of conversations that have been facilitated by me…
Read More
In this blog Claire Gardner shares some insights from her own divorce. She explains the fears she had surrounding her journey to being financially self-sufficient and how she draws on that to help other women who are having to look at going back to work following a divorce or separation. Many couples make decisions that one person will stay at home to look after children and historically this has often been mum’s role (although at LKW Family Mediation we have…
Read More
This video was put together by Louisa Whitney from LKW Family Mediation and Una Archer, a psychologist, from Parenting after Separation. Parenting after separation can feel very busy. You may find yourself carrying more responsibility for your child, whilst learning to navigate the co-parenting relationship. Una and I put our heads together to hopefully help you simplify things a bit, let go of things that are not essential and make more space for what is important for you.…
Read More
This blog is a guest blog by divorce consultant Rhiannon Ford. Rhiannon is a divorce consultant and coach providing support and guidance to people before, during and after divorce. She is based in Walton on Thames in Surrey but works with clients all over the country and UK nationals living abroad. If you have agreed to use the family law mediation process, hopefully you are feeling fairly optimistic that with the help of the family law mediator, you and your spouse…
Read More
We have recently been doing a series of blogs focusing on how you can minimise the effects of your separation on your children. Tip number 5 was to review the arrangements that you have made. We suggest that you check in with each other regularly (say every 3 to 6 months depending on how long you think the arrangements need to run before you know if they’re working or not). You can then talk about what you think is working…
Read More
When you separate from a partner there can be a whole myriad of emotions. Anger, resentment and fear are common and it is sometimes from a place seeped with these emotions that each party reacts. When you react from a place of anger or fear you can often be seen as being aggressive or threatening. A defensive reaction is often one designed to launch a preemptive attack and to wound before you are wound-ed. Our brains are complicated machines but…
Read More
In our list of tips to help parents minimise the effects of their separation on their children we have now reached tip three: making sure the arrangements are child centred. As we have suggested before this might sound obvious but it’s important that your arrangements take into account the different needs your children have. Talking to your children is key in this. Sometimes parents worry about talking to their children following a separation: they worry that they might say…
Read More
