Family Mediation Canada

Family Mediation Canada (FMC) has developed rigorous certification programs for family mediators.  FMC currently offers three certification streams - family relations mediator, comprehensive family mediator, and elder mediation mediator.  These certifications are recognized across Canada and internationally as reflecting some of the highest standards in education, training and experience that a family mediator can achieve.  To become FMC-certified, a mediator has to demonstrate a high degree of competency as well as possess high ethical standards.  FMC-certified mediators all agree to accept the complaint and disciplinary process that FMC has developed to protect the public interest in the proper and ethical practice of family mediation.

If you are considering using mediation to resolve a conflict, please contact one of our certified mediators: Find a Mediator.

If you are a family mediator or wish to become one, please consider becoming a certified mediator: Certification.

Family Mediation

Family mediation is about helping families grappling with unresolved conflict find ways to a solution.  Family conflicts most often arise where there is significant change: parents separate, blended families form, an aging parent needs to move to a residential facility, a teenager has been acting out, a parent has developed an addiction and isn't available to care for a child, and so on.  These changes tend to be very stressful - emotions run high, people don't listen to each other, there is a lot at stake.  Family mediators need to be able to help people work with difficult emotions, to know the right questions to ask (and when to ask them), and to know what information to bring forward.  To make mediation satisfying for everyone, and for the mediation process to be truly effective, a family mediator must master both "process" and "context".

Mediation

Mediation is a process designed to deal with problems that have been generated by unresolved conflict.  A mediator is invited into the situation, to help resolve the conflict.  In any mediation, two parts are at play: (1) managing the problem-solving dynamic, called the "process," and (2) understanding the background the conflict is embedded in, called the "context."  A qualified, trained mediator is fully able to manage the process and has a deep understanding of the context.  These professional skills, combined with the desire of the people involved to deal with their difficulties honestly, are what makes the mediation process so powerful.