About Us

Belinda re-trained in law as a mature student and completed her legal studies in 2015. She has worked in the property and family departments of high street law firms before deciding to harness her legal knowledge to focus on mediation, parenting co-ordination and family consultancy because she feels strongly that the importance of reducing conflict in family separation and divorce is often overlooked.

Prior to becoming a family mediator, Belinda developed a good knowledge of the legal framework that underpins both financial and children family law disputes through her work in courts as a McKenzie Friend. She has a solid experience of how a court might approach any given set of circumstances and a down to earth approach which acknowledges the emotions at play while supporting positive and future focused communication and decision-making.

Belinda has championed mediation and some of the many new forms of dispute resolution as the better way to resolve issues relating to family breakdown, ever since her own experiences as a client in divorce in 2007. Belinda has experienced, first hand, the adversarial nature of court processes. She saw the excessive financial cost of going to court, she witnessed the worsening effect this has had on the relationships of everyone involved and felt the lack of control over decisions relating to everyone’s future that court proceedings bring. Belinda brings a keenness to find the most cost-effective, least acrimonious route to settlement for any set of circumstances, but recognises that sometimes court is the only option. Belinda brings a keenness to always put the child at the centre of considerations, rather than in the middle of the conflict.

Belinda is a fully accredited FMCA Mediator with the Family Mediation Council, having completed her mediation training with the Family Mediators Association in April 2015.

At such a highly emotional time, Belinda feels that what separating couples need most is support and calmness to help them come up with their own solutions and to be supported to move towards their own preferred settlement at a pace which works for both. Maintaining positive communication can be vital where children are involved and where you need to continue to co-parent for many years beyond divorce.

As a Resolution trained hybrid mediator, Belinda brings the different professional skillsets of legal advice, financial advice, actuarial calculations, family consultants and family/individual therapists into the mediation space. She works closely with clients to decide when different professionals might benefit their circumstances. Belinda brings Independent Financial Advisers into the mediation process where appropriate, on such matters as pension sharing or other investment planning.

Belinda is also a Child Inclusive Mediator, which means that she can speak to the children in cases where both parents and the child/ren consent. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) states that children of appropriate age and understanding have a right to be consulted about arrangements which affect them and have a right to their own child-appropriate information about the impact of separation on them. This can significantly benefit parents at a turbulent time in their family’s life, so that they can take the best decisions possible, jointly when separating, to benefit their children.

As a family consultant (divorce coach) Belinda works to support clients to approach their children or financial matters with emotional readiness and resilience, both supporting Direct Access barrister representation at court as well as other forms of negotiated settlement, arbitration or court proceedings. Having previously run her own businesses, and benefitting from an MBA from City Business School (now CASS Business School), Belinda is comfortable working with clients to gather the relevant information for their financial settlement. Having also worked on a number of cases of parental alienation in the family court, Belinda is able to support alienated parents to manage their strong emotions related to being excluded from their child/ren’s lives while gathering the relevant evidence for their lawyer or barrister.

Belinda is also one of the first practitioners to be trained in parenting co-ordination in the UK. Parent co-ordination is a relatively new practice, currently already used in the US, Canada, South Africa and Hong Kong to manage ongoing issues in high-conflict child arrangements. Parenting co-ordinators are trained in law and in mental health counselling. The parenting co-ordinator usually meets with both parents, regularly, receives day-to-day queries or complaints about aspects of a parent's conduct and then makes recommendations to both parents in relation to conduct, communication and securing external support or help.

Belinda is  a member of Resolution, the College of Mediators and the AFCC (Association of Family & Conciliation Courts).

In her spare time, Belinda is also the Treasurer for the Cambridge and Ely Child Contact Centres.