Rhode Island Marriage Mediation - a fast, focused and results-oriented method to resolve issues.
Relationships, like people, are not perfect. Relationships experience conflicts; resolving conflicts in a healthy way is a good thing. Couples should not avoid difficult conversation. We provide a protected and confidential environment to resolve issues and learn to maintain better communication.
Mediation is a useful tool for couples in conflict to work to improve their relationship and remain together. Some issues stem from emotional layers and require counseling. However, many couples need a neutral third-party to assist with communication for decision-making and get them back on track. Mediation is a short-term, speedy process, focused on the future, forcing couples to resolve one, two or three conflicting issues. This can be done in conjunction with counseling.
"Couple's Mediation" assists married, never-married or LGBT/same sex couples resolve differences before they fester and become the big elephant in the room sucking the life out of a relationship. Call it "Preventive Mediation" for parties who realize that each person, seeing issues in his or her own way, needs to develop options that both parties can accept.
We have learned that many couples do not discuss their different thoughts about finances before beginning a committed relationship. It's just not romantic. Do arguments over bills and spending/savings habits occurring more often and are the voices getting louder? Are the children overhearing these arguments? This issue can be resolved in mediation.
Other conflicts that mediation can resolve:
- Annoying behaviors
- Raising children
- Whether to have one or more children and when
- Moving to a new location
- Household chores if both work
- Children's educational needs and choices
- Each party's night out with others
- Blended family conflicts
- Elder care issues
We worked with a couple who separated after prolonged exasperation and years of fighting about one party's perceived overuse of a cell phone by the other party, who maintained a strict budget with envelopes containing cash for each different bill. As the arguments grew, each person became more polarized and exhausted by the relationship until both felt irreconcilably helpless and disrespected. By the time they came in for mediation, they had "checked out" of the relationship. We mediated their divorce. Earlier intervention could have resolved the problem and anxiety that grew from it, allowing the family to remain intact.
Traditional counseling exploring parties' past is a longer process; couples' mediation is more immediate. The mediating parties discuss the issues in a rational manner and resolve their differences with a written agreement on how current and future decisions will be made. In the above example, a financial plan based on an agreed budget developed by both parties would have allowed the relationship to continue.
Steven Hirsch, acting as a neutral facilitator, with over 16 years of mediation experience and thirty years of legal experience, can help provide a sensible approach to resolving relationship conflicts. Contact Steven Hirsch by e-mail or by phone at 401-287-2079. Over the course of a few hours, create a new relationship plan based upon focused negotiated solutions. Stay together by resolving issues.
