When a couple separates, a partnership ends. Often times, the decision to separate is not mutual and, even if it is, each spouse may have arrived at the decision at different times. The process leading to separation, just like the process leading to marriage, is charged with emotion. For some, the emotions are well-managed and they treat the process of separation as a transaction that needs to be negotiated and papered. For others, the feelings of hurt and anger infuse the entire process of separation and inhibit the spouses from partaking in a civil and constructive dialogue. Much divorce litigation is fuelled by emotions. Even sound advice from lawyers and sage recommendations from judges are often clouded by the powerful emotional scars of separation. Lawyers, judges and the court system are not equipped to manage this element. Co-mediation is the process that respects and attends to the very live consequences of separation and divorce. By combining the legal skills of a lawyer-mediator with the therapeutic skills of a social worker-mediator, co-mediation provides spouses with a process that improves the likelihood of settlement by inviting, managing and understanding each spouse's emotional experience of separation.

Co-mediation by a lawyer-mediator and a social worker-mediator, both of whom have specialized expertise in separation, divorce and family re-organization, is the preferred method for helping a family through this life change.