Turner & Johnson Mediation

We are very sad indeed to announce that our beloved colleague Sheila Turner died on 7 December 2022, following a very short illness. Sheila was an exceptional mediator and therapist – she will be very much missed by us and everyone who knew her. 

Turner & Johnson was founded in January 2012 by Sheila and Philippa. We are very proud of what we have achieved since then, especially our work in the field of child-inclusive mediation. In 2022 Sheila was one of three mediators short-listed as child-inclusive mediator of the year.

Philippa Johnson is accredited by the Family Mediation Council (and is therefore an FMCA mediator). Philippa is qualified to meet with children within mediation (child-inclusive mediation). She is a member of, a Board member of and former chair of the Family Mediators Association (FMA). She was called to the Bar in 1999, is a member of Middle Temple and has worked for over 20 years as a legal consultant to barristers, solicitors, publishers and legal organisations, providing family specialists with information on changes in family law. Philippa is particularly well known in the family law world for her work as a law reporter (she is now the lead reporter on the Family Court Reports), and as the former Executive Director of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (now the International Academy of Family Lawyers). She provides other family mediators of all levels of experience with training, including as a foundation trainer for the FMA, and also acts as a supervisor for other family mediators. Philippa was one of two editorial consultants for the family mediation ‘bible’, Lisa Parkinson’s Family Mediation (4th edition).

Devorah Greenberg is accredited by the Family Mediation Council (and is therefore an FMCA mediator). Devorah is qualified to meet with children within mediation (child-inclusive mediation). She is a member of the Family Mediators Association (FMA). Devorah has extensive experience coaching adults and children on areas of mental well-being, communication and personal development.  She has delivered training, both privately and in schools, and has worked alongside a wide variety of parenting experts over the course of her career.  Devorah has considerable experience teaching parenting topics on self-esteem and self-awareness with a focus on early developmental stages and teens.  

Venetia Tosswill is accredited by the Family Mediation Council (and is therefore an FMCA mediator). Venetia is qualified to met with children within mediation (child-inclusive mediation). She is a member of the Family Mediators Association (FMA). Her background is in law, having practiced as a solicitor with a firm of top London divorce lawyers, where she worked on a wide variety of family issues with particular emphasis on resolving financial matters following divorce and applications concerning children.  She has also spent over 10 years lecturing in Family Law at BPP University and continues to do so as a visiting lecturer. Venetia provides training about family law to other family mediators, and recently joined the team providing foundation training for the FMA.

Harriet Radley is a Family Mediation Association (FMA) trained family mediator, registered with the Family Mediation Council (FMC), and is a member of the FMA. Harriet practiced as a dispute resolution lawyer at a leading city firm and taught dispute resolution on the Legal Professional Course at BPP University for many years. She has a Masters of Law degree, covering both Comparative Family Law and Child Law. Harriet is part of a current pilot project to provide mediation to families at court.

Co-mediation

We offer families a professional and sensitive service, working alongside other professionals including legal advisers, as appropriate, to help couples to identify alternatives to going to court. We strongly believe that co-mediation is the best way to promote good communication and to support families making decisions about the future. Co-mediation involves two mediators working together to help each couple, ideally bringing different and complementary skills to the process. 

Location

We are based in central London. Like many other mediators we work a great deal online now, but we are also usually able to offer our clients the use of charming rooms in Soho, Farringdon and Spitalfields. We sometimes travel farther afield, and will always try to arrange suitable mediation space at a location and for a time that suits you.

Code of Practice

We all work to the Family Mediation Council Code of Practice 2018, the details of which can be found here

Complaints

We are committed to providing a high-quality mediation service. When something goes wrong we want you to let us know – please feel free to contact either of us by telephone or by email if you want to discuss any aspect of our service. If you are dissatisfied, clients have a right to complain directly to us for up to 6 months after the relevant event. The other people who may make a complaint are prospective clients who have been directly affected by our professional behaviour and those who have been invited to participate in a mediation session. You can find more information about what this means at https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/complaints-about-mediators/. You may contact either of us directly, or our admin email address (info@turnerjohnsonmediation.co.uk). If you do not hear back from us within the timeframes set out below, please do try to contact us by telephone and use the email details on our website, which will certainly have the current contact details for us, to ensure that we have received the complaint. We hope that, in most cases, a conversation between us will be sufficient to set minds at rest.

Using our complaints process does not prejudice your right to apply to the courts for civil redress. What we hope to achieve is an outcome to the complaint that we all feel is constructive and proportionate, and to avoid any unnecessary escalation of problems.

Full details of our complaints policy can be found here.