Where Does Marital Mediation Fit In?

Where does Marital Mediation fit in?

Is marital mediation (mediating disputes between married couples) facilitative, evaluative, or transformative?

First of all, like all mediation, marital mediation styles will depend on the personality, skills, preferences, and background of the mediator. Mediators come from all walks of life, and with varying experiences and trainings. Mediators are not generally locked into one of the three categories. Every mediator will do his/her job differently and most combine mediation strategies to seek to make the mediation effective. Mediation, in that sense, is more like an art than a science.

Most of what marital mediators do falls under the category of "facilitative" mediation. However, in marital mediation often the mediator is not as concerned with helping parties get to an agreement, as with promoting understanding. In contrast, in divorce mediation, the goal is to come to the many specific agreements needed to complete a comprehensive divorce settlement agreement. As a result, divorce mediation has a specific goal and may be faster-paced.

In a marital mediation, the parties are not getting along in certain aspects of their relationship. Often this discomfort and anger has spread over to their entire relationship making their interactions quite corrosive. Getting them to have one agreement on a troublesome issue may be helpful, but facilitating mutual understanding is generally more important. That is why in marital mediations, a written agreement often does not result from the process.

Source: Where Does Marital Mediation Fit In? | Laurie Israel