Jewish Family and Children's Service offers a divorce mediation program for couples undergoing the dissolution of their marriage. Divorce mediation is widely considered to be a more positive and empowering process than the traditional attorney-driven process.

From Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family Therapists Newsletter

THE QUESTION: I have a female client who's in the process of getting a divorce. Her husband, who I haven't met, has suggested mediation. In particular, he told her someone in his men's group had suggested something called "Transformational Mediation." She thinks her husband's up to something and is trying to manipulate her into giving up her rights. I'm realizing that I don't know enough about the difference between what lawyers do and what mediators do to guide her. Can someone explain this all to me?

Jewish couples going through a divorce are gradually making a new and most welcome discovery - divorce mediation. They often find significant advantages in going through this caring and humane process to help resolve the disputes surrounding their divorces.

If you believe Joe Folger, co-author of The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict, (and whose approach I use and provide training in), Minnesota's mediators may be doing more harm than good. On MPR's Midmorning with Kerri Miller recently, Folger claimed that prevalent mediation methods hurt the parties and endanger the entire mediation field. He explained that clients who experience the most commonly used mediation methods find the process extremely frustrating. And word of their frustration spreads, deterring others from using mediation at all.