GROUP COUNSELLING
AND MEDIATION

Group counselling sessions are a wonderful way of setting a positive foundation for a Collaborative Family Building plan that includes donation, surrogacy, or co-parenting. This type of appointment is scheduled when two or more people who are not romantically involved, wish to either create a family together or help the other have a baby. Group counselling is beneficial at the start of and throughout the journey to assist with exploring short and long-term goals, expectations on all sides, concerns, questions and logistical, medical plans. It is designed for pairs or groups of people who are getting along well and want to ensure a smooth path moving forward.

This type of counselling is client-led, based on your concerns/questions and can be 60 or 90 minutes. Our recommendation for a first counselling appointment is 90-minutes, since there is so much to cover in getting to know your history and discussing the counselling goals/plan before you get to the “work” of the session. In such a case, subsequent appointments would be 50-minutes in duration.

Group counselling, and is optional and confidential (within the bounds of the law).

Mediation appointments are designed to address situations when conflicts have arisen between Intended Parent(s) and Donors or Surrogates, as well as between those in co-parenting arrangements. When this happens, we are available to provide first-step mediation services and conflict resolution strategies in an understanding and balanced atmosphere. All sides are respected and heard, concrete goals and solutions are developed and provided to everyone involved.

For this type of session, a 60-90 minute appointment is required with each side separately, in order to identify each parties goals and concerns. Once this foundation has been established, group medication session(s) can be arranged. These can be scheduled for 1.5-2-hours, and take place over as many separate appointments as is necessary.

In the event initial mediation attempts do not result in the desired outcome, or when the situation necessitates it from the start, lawyers and/or accredited mediation experts may be recommended.