Skip to main content

It starts with a phone call to the Centre for Mediation.

When you contact the Centre for Mediation, we will want to chat with you to familiarise ourselves about your situation and circumstances. We will need to know basic information such as your contact details to arrange a time for you to attend a private and confidential “Intake Session” with our Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. Upon your approval, we will also extend an invitation to the other party to participate in the mediation and we will take their contact details to arrange a private and confidential “Intake Session” with them.

We will also ask you at this stage to begin, if you have not already, to consider your own goals, what you aspire to achieve from the mediation, what options you have and what you would be willing to consider. We will ask you to consider where you see yourself getting stuck in the mediation session and where you see hurdles. We will discuss these questions with you and in greater detail in your private and confidential Intake Session.

The Intake Session

Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners are bound by the Family Law (Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners) Regulations 2008 to conduct an Intake Session. Please click here to read more about Confidentiality. The Centre for Mediation considers the private and confidential Intake Session to be extremely valuable and beneficial; and as you would expect, they are private and confidential. This is because we want you to feel completely safe to express yourself in the Intake Session. Nothing discussed in the Intake Session will be disclosed to the other party. It is your opportunity to tell our Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner the history and circumstances of your relationship, the current situation in relation to your child/children and/or property and finances, to articulate your concerns and issues in a supportive environment and to establish the issues you wish to discuss and find solution for, in the mediation.