Mediation Profile
Tara Fass, LMFT
Child Custody Mediator/Parenting Plan Advisor

Tara has been a child custody mediator since 1994, and before joining Peace Talks Mediation Services she was a Los Angeles Superior Court Child Custody Mediator and Child Custody Evaluator in the Los Angeles Conciliation Court Office. She has also taught a Co-Parent Education Program with the Los Angeles Superior Court and maintains a private psychotherapy practice.

As a child custody mediator with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Tara has mediated over 4,000 cases. She has experience working with diverse ethnic, cultural and religious groups with family law issues of custody and visitation.

Tara's specialty is child custody mediation and developing parenting plans for children, from infancy through adolescence, including special needs children. She is also experienced in paternity mediation, mediating parenting plans for same-sex partnerships, adoptions and surrogate birth mediation, guardianships parent/child reunification mediation and counseling, and domestic violence mediation issues

In addition to her professional divorce and custody mediation and training experience, Tara also has taught classes for parents going through divorce on how to negotiate the best possible divorce from a child's point of view. Tara has lectured on the subjects of co-parenting and blended families on the graduate school level and has presented on the topic of "Transformational Mediation" and "Preparing Clients for Custody Mediations" for therapist and attorney professional organizations. Family law and custody mediation is Tara's second career; she previously taught elementary school.

Tara also teaches Co-Parenting with your Ex - a class for divorcing or separating parents - Brochure 1 & Brochure 2

Mediation Style:

• Transformative and Facilitative
• Child-centered
• Solution-oriented and reality-based
• Direct and probing manner

Education:

B.S.,Goucher College, 1977-1981, Towson, Maryland
M.S., California State L.A., 1989-1993, Los Angeles, California

Other Qualifications:

Member of Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
Member of California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists

Personal Values in Mediation:

My experience as a mediator within the court system is that while court services are fine, they largely operate in a "crisis mode" and are unlikely to result in long-lasting peace. Private mediation gives parents the option to work at their own pace, try out new ideas, and tailor their parenting plans to their lifestyles as well as their children's. Mediation also helps parents keep their children as the focus of their worlds, as opposed to the legal process, and to focus on their children's best interests, both for their initial separation and divorce as well as when their children's developmental needs change.

Mediation gives parents the tools they need to create a positive co-parenting environment, no matter how rocky the marriage or previous relationship.