Mediation Testimonials

Hi Viv,

Just a quick e-mail to say thank you for your help and assistance over the past couple of months. Whilst difficult and at times frustrating, I know that we wouldn’t have made as much progress as we have, without you guiding us along the path in a safe, friendly and non biased manner.

Hope you have a lovely Christmas.

Kind regards

PD

I recently underwent several mediation sessions with Viv regarding divorce. Although, I initially attended the meetings with some trepidation, I found Viv very professionally guided us through the process to come to a solution we could both accept.

Viv conducted the meetings with sensitivity, she was particularly skillful at guiding us away from recriminations and accusations – something I was particularly concerned about.

I feel that Viv conducted a potentially unpleasant process efficiently and fairly. I am pleased with the outcome and looking forward to moving on.

My ex-husband and I were unable to move forward, as our discussions usually descended into slanging matches. Yet, however highly charged and difficult the situation was, Viv’s skill in steering us towards finding something positive to take forward was amazing. Her approach is light touch, perceptive and responsive to our needs, while, at the same time, being uncompromising in achieving results at every session. So much more effective and so much cheaper than lawyers!

The environment and atmosphere of Viv’s offices are lovely, relaxed and easy to work in.As difficult and painful as the sessions were personally, Viv was completely neutral, sensitive and professional in her approach to our problems and what we needed to achieve from the sessions.

Viv very quickly and easily opened up the communication between my ex-husband and myself to assist in our financial settlement for our divorce, Viv also helped us to amicably resolve child access.

To be honest I wasn’t completely open to mediation when I started it, but now at the other side of the process I found visiting Viv very productive, less expensive and a more personally tailored process than using solicitors. I would have no hesitation to recommend Viv and her professional services to anyone going through the divorce process.

I would highly recommend any potential clients to use Viv in any mediation process. I found her to be professional, honest and an excellent mediator.

Having tried to conclude financial matters for some time, she managed to steer us both in the right direction in only two meetings and we achieved more in those meetings than we had in the previous six months including opening up communication lines and thus improving our relationship going forward.

She is an excellent listener, she is organized and methodical and has the ability to ensure that discussions don’t go off on a tangent.

I would highly recommend her services.

I am a Solicitor specialising in Matrimonial Law and in the course of my practice, I refer clients to mediation. In that connection, I would highly recommend Viv to anyone considering mediation.  From my point of view, as a solicitor, Viv is really helpful, deals with referrals incredibly quickly and is excellent at communicating the outcome of such referrals and providing written notes of the discussions had at mediation sessions, which is useful given solicitors are not party to these meetings.  I am also pleased that all of the clients I have referred to Viv have given positive feedback of their experiences.  Sometimes they resolve all their issues; sometimes they only resolve some.  Whatever the outcome, they report to me that they had felt very comfortable discussing their circumstances with Viv and found her supportive throughout the process, as well as her being very effective in directing the sessions towards a meaningful and useful discussion.

I am a Partner in a firm of solicitors and am Head of Family Law in that firm. I would not hesitate to recommend Viv to fellow professionals and clients in her role as a mediator. I feel that Viv’s experience as a former family lawyer combined with her life coaching and mediation skills set her apart from the average mediator. Coupled with this is the fact that Viv has a very calm aura and relaxed temperament which I believe would instantly help to diffuse tension and becalm even the most obtuse of parties within the mediation process. I have referred a large number of clients to Viv over the last few years with very positive outcomes…

From our first meeting it was clear that Viv was a caring & attentive listener who immediately put my wife & I at ease in what was tense & emotional situation.

Neutral & pragmatic, Viv helped guide us to a final outcome that I’m sure we would have not reached as speedily & amicably had we taken a different route. There were rocky times during our negotiations but Viv helped to gently smooth the path to a happy outcome, helping us to keep emotions aside & focus on a mutually positive agreement & out look for the future.

Mediation is not something that you choose to go through but given the choice of that or tearing each other to pieces in court I know which one I would make. If you can find a mediator like Viv to help you along the way then the whole process will be made that much more bearable.

Thank you very much for all your help & support Viv, we both are grateful & glad to have met you.

Viv Hulland assisted my husband and I in settling our divorce through the mediation process.

Although we have both found separation and divorce stressful and emotional at times, Viv was very supportive and her calm and friendly nature helped keep the meetings as pleasant and amicable as possible.

My husband and I were most definitely singing from different hymn sheets at the start of the process but a few meetings later Viv successfully managed to help us close that gap and reach an agreement that felt right for both of us.

I would certainly urge any couple that are having to go through a divorce or separation to get in touch with Viv and give mediation a go.

I am a  solicitor and Head of a Family Law Department  and in that capacity ,refer my clients to mediation when I can see that it will benefit them best. You can trust Viv to do a good job.  You know that if you refer cases to her she will do all the necessary things like keep appointments, phone your clients back promptly etc but beyond this professionalism, you know that if you refer cases to Viv for family mediation that if a couple can’t come to an agreement with Viv’s help, they can’t come to an agreement at all.  She’s helped resolve some disputes I never thought were capable of being resolved, but she doesn’t pretend to be a miracle worker and is decisive in calling the process to  a halt if she knows it isn’t going anywhere.  After over 20 years of practice I typically advise clients who are personally recommended to me who have busy professional lives with high expectations of service and results.  I have no hesitation in  recommending Viv to them.  I always tell those who are receptive to the mediation process to give it a go, Viv is a good mediator who knows what she is doing.  I’m not known professionally for shying away from litigation but I firmly believe clients shouldn’t  enter the Court process which invariably ends in compromise and legal fees at least equivalent to the cost of a new car, and often a very nice new car, until they are sure there is no other way forward.

Having already gone through the horrendous process of the family court and a huge solicitor’sbill wewere still unable to agree on residency arrangements for our 3-year-old. The separation, then court had left us both emotionally and financially drained.At our last court appearance we both agreed to give mediation one last try, we had tried it previously with another provider with no success.

During my research I was immediately attracted to Viv as she was not only a qualified mediator with a credible background in law but the fact she combined this with a coaching approach made absolute sense as mediation can be very stressful emotionally.

Viv was honest, pragmatic, sensitive, firm and most of all neutral. Those first few sessions were very difficult as there was a lot of resentment, mistrust and sadness between us. Viv allowed the emotion to be expressed respectfully whilst keeping us very much on track with the job in hand.

After each session Viv was very pro active and sent each of us a timely email on what we discussed and what we had agreed to do. She never pressurised us to do it but we both felt that the contract was not only between the two of us but also with Viv which for us resulted in working hard on the tasks we had agreed to do outside the sessions.

As a result we have had a huge breakthrough and are now able to communicate much more effectively which ultimately has had a profound effect on our relationship enabling us to make good decisions for the future.

I am so glad that I chose Viv as our mediator, I only wish I had found her first time round she really is brilliant at what she does and I would recommend time and time again – thank you so much for your help and support Viv.

The whole process of separation is difficult and sad but at the same time there are practical things that have to be tackled. After a very long marriage, resolving assets through a brutal court battle was not my preference and therefore I chose mediation to help my husband and I deal with the financial side of things.

I didn’t know what to expect and I was open-minded about mediation knowing that if it didn’t work I had the choice to pursue a different route.

As soon as I met Viv I knew I could confide in her about my deepest feelings without risk. She explained the process very clearly and the differences between mediation and the more formal legal route. Viv was consistently professional throughout the entire process and always 100% fair and objective to both of us. Viv strikes a great balance between getting the job done in a structured and logical way while allowing sufficient pauses for reflection and expressing feelings.

Even outside of our mediation sessions when I needed to refer things to Viv she was accessible and tremendously supportive. During a very unstable and frightening period which sometimes seemed to be going on forever, Viv was a person in whom I could place my trust, something which is so important at a time like this.

Having internalised the loneliness and pain of a very difficult marriage for numerous years, there are very few people who I would put myself in the hands of, but I can highly recommend Viv as a person to help facilitate a final outcome during even the most difficult of separations in a neutral, pragmatic and most of all, human way.