Divorce Mediation Associates, Ltd. is a multi-disciplinary divorce mediation firm based in Reston, Virginia. It was founded in 2016 by attorney Steven M. Garver and Dr. Patrice Garver. Mr. Garver started working in divorce mediation because he saw family law litigation wasn’t providing couples and families with solutions that worked for either the spouses or the children, and has pursued the work since 1979. He began pursing mediation because he appreciated that spouses reach better and more satisfying solutions if they reach an agreement on their own, and he saw how often the divorce process ended up in contested court proceedings. The adversarial posturing that takes place in traditional representation was detrimental to the future of the family members, and their continued relationship with each other and the parties children. No matter how much a judge may care and try, he/she will not know your family and its needs as well as you will.
We enlist the assistance of many other professionals working in multiple disciplines. Attorneys and mental health professionals work together, to help the couple resolve their legal, financial, family and emotional differences. Our divorce mediators may also work with financial consultants, such as CPAs or financial planners, to fully determine what assets each spouse has, what income they earn, and what the debt obligations are, and help find financial solutions. These neutral advisers and the mediator(s) help clients see the “big picture” about their circumstances, so that we can find resolutions which benefit both parties.
The aims of mediation are:
- Give the spouses control over the final decisions on equitable distribution, child custody, visitation, parenting plans, child support, alimony, and any other marital issues.
- Protect children from the emotional trauma of an adversarial process.
- Provide a level of detail and a quality of solutions that result in amicable and fair agreements that work for the entire family.
- Craft personalized agreements that address your specific needs, and the specific needs of your family, so that you can avoid having a plan imposed on you by the court.
- Enable parents and children to communicate on their own and to respect and value each other’s life choices.
It is our strong professional backgrounds and our willingness to work through the tough problems that has enabled Divorce Mediation Associates, Ltd. to help couples make a relatively smooth transition from living together to living apart. Many of our new clients are referred to us at the recommendation of our prior clients.