MESSAGE TO THERAPISTS

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our services. I want you to feel confident in referring your clients to CFR. Whether they are ready to start the process or just want to learn about their options, we can assist them.

Although our initial focus was mediation for divorce and other family conflicts, with over 100 contracted mediators throughout the US, we provide mediation for most situations.

The Inspiration For CFR

It is due to my experience as clinical social worker in Chicago that CFR Mediation was founded. Therapy clients are often trying to navigate through interpersonal conflicts or disputes. These conflicts can be about anything, but it was specifically those clients who decided to end a marriage that prompted me to develop CFR.

It seemed that couples who made the difficult decision to divorce – generally after periods of prolonged emotional distress – so often ended up in a protracted litigious dispute with one another regardless of their initial expressed intent.

As a therapist, I know that the decision to divorce is not an easy one. Shouldn’t making a decision, one way or another, result in a sense of relief and a renewed therapeutic focus on building a positive future? Too often the decision the divorce leads to new frustrations and stressors for the couple.

Attorneys and the litigated divorce process itself became additional sources of stress: increasing the conflict, emotional discord, and expense experienced by the couple and family. Everyone, including children, suffer in ways they were not prepared for, nor need not experience, because the already distressed relationships are made worse by the divorce process.

Even divorces that seemed simple and straightforward, with both sides avowing to cooperate with one another, swiftly incurred legal fees amounting to more than $30,000 and drug out for more than a year. Couples often entered the process with as positive of an outlook as possible, but the litigation process changed that, they were worn down by the process feeling less confident about a positive outcome as the weeks and months drug by. And in the midst of this there are often children.

Mediation as an alternative made since. It is a natural alternative to litigation, and allows those personally involved in the dispute create the solution that works for them: they are the experts. In other words a divorcing couple makes the decisions as to what is going to work best for them. Every family is unique, and only they know what will work best for them.

CFR service delivery model is based on the client-centered best practices of behavioral health business models. Every effort is made to ensure that parties in dispute can effectively resolve their disputes in an efficient manner, minimizing cost and stress incurred in resolution.

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Additional Therapist Resources

• FAQ For Therapists
• Therapist Information Home
• Divorce Mediation
• Parenting/Child Custody Mediation