Voluntary

Mediation is an entirely voluntary process; you, your partner and the mediators each make a choice to attend mediation, and may withdraw from the process at any time. It seems that couples are more likely to engage with one another, and with the mediators, if they have chosen to participate, and are more likely to feel a personal commitment to the outcome of a voluntary process than to an imposed solution. The voluntary principle also applies to the mediators – if in their view the mediation is not useful to the family, they too may withdraw from the process. In other words, everyone involved is able to ‘try’ the process out, to find out whether or not it can assist, without any irrevocable commitment.