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.