RELATIONSHIP MEDIATION

Facilitation and guidance to help people get aligned

Discover and memorialize your vision, intentions, commitments, and agreements in a customized Relationship Contract.

Whether brand new or seasoned, sometimes people in long-term relationships (romantic or otherwise), need facilitation and guidance.

Not designed to be a legal document, a Relationship Contract is clearer than most wedding vows. For intimate partners, it is a blueprint to cultivate and strengthen the natural affinity between partners; a vision for each individual's personal growth; and a road map to navigate challenges together. For family members, it is tailored to dismantle the patterns of strain.

Relationship Mediation often occurs as a complement to therapy or couples counseling. Conscious Family maintains referral lists of the best couples counselors in Boulder and Denver.

If you are encountering conflict with a intimate partner, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, or other family member, you may want to consider investing in facilitation to help resolve whatever misunderstandings or discontents are plaguing your familial connection.

Goals of Relationship Mediation

Relationship mediation can help in the pursuit of various goals, such as:

• Charting a workable roadmap for your future, in the context of your relationships.

• Helping you and the people in relationship with you to create better communication practices

• Creating a written agreement that everyone in the relationship will respect and observe

• Finding a solution to keep a family together

Why Couples Seek Relationship Mediation

A mediated Relationship Contract is a good way to clearly identify strategies to address the common causes of marital problems. In some cases, relationship mediators can be very directive, like a transformational coach. The most extraordinary relationships are ones where each person in the relationship holds space for his or her own growth, and the growth of the others.

Doing transformational work with couples is only possible where both members of the couple are open to transformation. It’s important to know that transformational work can impact the relationship in unpredictable ways. While the best relationships include people who are prepared to grow together, sometimes individual transformational work may lead to the relationship ending.

Conscious Family relationship mediators are neutral to all parties of the relationship, and are also neutral with respect to whether the relationship should continue or not (even if parties declare a desire to remain in relationship).

Why Family Members Seek Relationship Mediation

Family relationships can be exceedingly difficult. Families are often composed of unintentional networks of people, many of whom have different values, goals, and beliefs.

We have seen many long-term family members struggling with seemingly intractable misunderstandings or conflicts, including:

• Parent(s) and an adult child

• Adult siblings

• “In-law” relationships

You can elect to solve your differences without the use of a mediator, but this may not yield long-term results. It’s common that one party feels that he or she compromised more than the other party, and this can cause additional problems.

Although sharing private relationship matters to a stranger may seem difficult, the benefits of doing so are numerous. Some of these benefits are:

Harness the Power of a Witness

A mediator is an objective witness whose presence alone can create a space where parties feel safe to speak about their experiences, and to communicate with clarity and precision.

Understand the Issue(s) Better

One reason disagreements escalate is that one or more parties are afraid to “have a voice” and explain any grievances. Letting contentious issues go unresolved will give rise to new quarrels.

Your relationship mediator will work to ensure that:

• Each party expresses himself clearly and completely on any important issues, and

• Other parties receive the message accurately.

Find Sustainable Solutions

Soliciting other relatives or friends to help solve your relationship challenges is a common approach, but is often not effective.

A professional mediator is specially trained to resolve conflict by helping parties:

• Pinpoint the core issues of conflict;

• Identify all relevant options to move forward;

• Evaluate the best of the relevant options; and

• Craft the most satisfactory resolution(s).