When mediation coaching helps
Most people who come to this service did not set the process up. They have been told that Family Dispute Resolution is the next step, the other side has put forward one or more practitioners to run it, and a date is being arranged. It can feel like everything is happening on someone else's terms. Paying a lawyer to sit beside you through the whole matter is often more than the situation calls for, but turning up unprepared is not the answer either.
Mediation coaching is for the person who wants to meet the process on equal footing: informed, clear about what matters to them, and calm enough to speak to it.
- You have been invited or directed to attend FDR that someone else arranged.
- The other party has a lawyer and you do not, or not yet.
- You have a mediation date coming up and want to prepare properly.
- You want to understand your options before you agree to anything.
Free template: agreeing to attend, in your own words
If a lawyer has written asking you to attend Family Dispute Resolution and you are willing to go, this plain Word template lets you confirm that in writing yourself, without paying a lawyer to draft a reply. Fill in the bracketed details, delete the guidance page, and send.
What it is, and what it is not
This is the most important part of the page, so it is worth being exact. Mediation coaching is preparation and support for one party. It is a different role to the neutral practitioner who runs your mediation, and it has clear limits.
Coaching is not legal advice
We are an accredited Family Dispute Resolution practitioner, not a law firm. Coaching helps you understand the process and prepare your own thinking. It does not tell you what you are legally entitled to. Where that question matters, we will say so plainly and point you to a family lawyer, including when a short, targeted piece of legal advice is worth the cost.
The person who coaches you is never the person who runs your mediation. Your FDR session is conducted by the neutral practitioner the parties have agreed on. Coaching sits completely outside that room. Nothing said in coaching is shared with the other side, with their lawyer, or with the practitioner running your mediation.
We cannot coach you and mediate the same matter
If we prepare one party for a dispute, we can never act as the neutral practitioner in that same dispute. That rule is not a technicality. It is what keeps the mediation fair, and it protects both you and the other party. For that reason, coaching is only available where we are not, and will not be, the practitioner running your FDR.
What we help you do
A coaching session is practical. It is built around your matter and the decisions you are likely to face, not a generic briefing.
Understand the process
What FDR is, what happens on the day, what the practitioner can and cannot do, how online sessions and private breakout rooms work, and what a Section 60I certificate would and would not mean for you.
Get your priorities clear
What matters most to you, where you have room to move, and what a workable agreement could look like for your family. Walking in with that settled in your own mind changes how the day goes.
Understand your alternatives
What happens if no agreement is reached, so you are weighing any proposal from a position of understanding rather than pressure. Knowing your alternative is the single biggest thing that steadies people in the room.
Stay composed
Practical ways to keep steady when the conversation is hard, to speak to your own interests without escalating, and to ask for a break when you need one.
Know when to get legal advice
The specific points where a family lawyer's input is worth paying for, so your money goes on advice that counts rather than on representation you may not need.
Which of the nominated practitioners should you choose?
People often worry that a practitioner suggested by the other party, or by the other party's lawyer, will somehow be on their side. They will not be. Every AGD-accredited Family Dispute Resolution practitioner is bound by the same Act, the same regulations, and the same standards. An FDR practitioner is neutral by law, whoever nominated them. None of them acts for either party.
That is why the identity of the practitioner matters far less than how prepared you are when you arrive. If the names on your list are unfamiliar, it is reasonable to check each one's accreditation and read how they describe their approach. But you are not choosing the other side's referee. You are choosing a neutral facilitator, and any properly accredited practitioner on a sensible list will do that job to the same standard.
A nominated practitioner is still neutral
Even where the other party or their lawyer suggested the practitioner, that practitioner does not act for, advise, or favour either side. Their obligations of neutrality and confidentiality apply equally to both parties from the first contact. The fact that someone else put the name forward does not change that.
How a session works
The service is deliberately light and quick to arrange, because most people come to it with a mediation date already approaching.
Free 30-minute discovery call
We confirm the service is right for you, check there is no conflict, including making sure we are not the practitioner running your FDR, and tell you what to have ready.
Your coaching session
One private online session by Google Meet, held before your mediation date. One person, focused entirely on your matter and your preparation. At the end we gauge together how ready you feel, and whether a further hour closer to the date would help.
A simple plan to take in with you
A short written summary of your priorities and a plan for the day, in your own words, so you walk in clear rather than scrambling to remember.
What it costs
Mediation coaching is charged at a simple hourly rate, agreed before anything starts. The discovery call is free, and there is no obligation to book a session after it.
Your first session is one hour, which is enough for most people to walk in clear. Whether you need more time depends on how confident you feel about the day, something we gauge together at the end of the session. Some people are set after an hour. Others book a further hour closer to their mediation date, once the issues are sharper in their mind. You are never signed up for more than you need.
Spread it into four interest-free payments with Afterpay.
If you or your children are not safe
If you are experiencing family violence, or are concerned about the safety of a child, support is available. The Get Help page lists national crisis and family violence services that operate independently of this practice. In immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000).