I have always had a strong desire to work with families. I think a lot of this desire came from my own upbringing, which was not terrible, but definitely strained. We moved a lot when I was young, I was in a different school each new school year. My parents worked a lot, which left myself and my little brother often times fending for ourselves. Shortly after finally settling down into a home that was meant to be more permanent then all of those that came before it, my mother was killed in a car accident. I was 12 years old.
As a child, I clearly had no idea what all of this meant to me on a larger scale. However, as an adult I have learned that it impacted me at the foundational level of never really feeling stable. Even though consciously I know I now have a very stable life, it’s those formative years that really create our identity.
I share this with you, not for your empathy, but instead to offer you mine. To let you know I can relate to what you are going through. I am once divorced myself, however, I think my upbringing, more than anything, has provided me with a deep sense of understanding. An understanding of how it feels when your entire world falls from underneath you and it constantly feels like you are on a small boat in the middle of the ocean during a terrible storm. It is the unknown that terrifies us the most. I understand, for many of you reading this right now, this is a process you have never been through and never thought you would have to go through. Trying to picture what your life will look like after this is all over is painful and scary. It is the unknown. I am very sensitive to this feeling and I have made it my life’s work to learn and do everything I can to make this journey for you as painless as possible. I promise to clear the smoke early and often and to plainly show you the available paths. I will not keep you in the dark and use strategies that do nothing but increase your anxiety, as the legal system often does. I want nothing more than to provide you and your family the clarity and the strength to make informed decisions that will lead you down the most peaceful path, allowing you to reconfigure your relationship with each other, if a relationship needs to continue.
I began my college career on a path to become a psychologist. Somewhere along the way, my educational desires changed, but I still had a longing to work with families. However, the thought of becoming a family law attorney didn’t really satisfy my goal of “helping” families, but I knew I wanted and needed to go to law school. I learned about the mediation process and knew that was the right path for me. It would allow me to fully embrace my passion for the law, as well as my passion to help families during difficult transitions. My business partner and I are unique in that we both knew going into law school that we never wanted to practice law in the traditional sense. We both went into law school knowing we wanted to mediate and we wanted to create a center that would put our client’s well-being first and foremost. This is how San Diego Family Mediation Center was born.