Divorce Mediation NJ: Therapeutic but not Therapy

It seems there are times when clients confuse NJ divorce mediators with counselors or therapists and I thought it might be be helpful to clarify the difference. As I understand it, counseling helps individuals examine their past to identify certain key events or influences that have caused them to behave a certain way in the present. NJ divorce mediators on the other hand help couples from the present move towards the future and are not focused on the events in your past that have brought you to our offices. By the very nature of both of you sitting across from me, it is my assumption that you have both made the decisions to divorce and you wish to proceed using divorce mediation as you came to my office voluntarily.

Now, are there times when divorce mediation is therapeutic? Absolutely. It is extremely common for couples who see me to have difficulty communicating and so part of a NJ divorce mediators job is to help facilitate that communication while in mediation sessions so that the two of you can come to a mutually agreeable settlement. And when an agreement is reached through mediation, there certainly is what I call a breakthrough. Some clients have jokingly asked me to be available to come to their home to help mediate future conversations and while I’m sure that would be interesting, I think it may get expensive for both of you.

So in the end remember: therapy helps you examine your past while divorce mediation is therapeutic by helping you design your future. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror.