Helping you resolve issues
and transform conflict
into growth and connection

We offer professional mediation, conflict resolution and coaching to clients on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Gulf Islands.

Our team brings decades of experience in mediation, conflict resolution and conflict coaching to every client.

Let us help you move past static positions and defensiveness to find common ground, mutual agreement and improved skills to navigate future conflict.

Our Services

  • Interpersonal dynamics within a workplace can be complex, combining multiple personality types, varying roles and objectives, and hierarchical power dynamics within the closed bubble of an office. It is not uncommon within a workplace to lose sight of the fact that each and every person has their own story, full of struggle and success, and that conflict often arises when we engage with colleagues without recognizing this.

    Bringing our many years of experience within a wide variety of workplaces, from small family businesses to multi-billion dollar corporations, we can help you move past sticking points to re-engage with each other on a human level, finding common ground and a path forward that all parties agree to. If the issue is endemic within the business, we can help management in rooting out the core problems and overcoming them, including structural issues, toxic teams or work environments, anger management, complex multi-party conflicts, and executive coaching.

    We offer three types of workplace service:

    Workplace medation can help you or your employees resolve internal issues, potentially avoiding costly litigation and tribunals.

    Workplace coaching is designed for management and executives to learn how to better avoid and resolve conflict within your workplace.

    Workplace investigation utilizes our broad skillsets as mediators, negotiators and coaches to help you discern what has happened or is happening.

  • Is there anything more rewarding and challenging than family? All families have conflict, and sometimes it does not feel possible to resolve the issues at hand without assistance. Our team brings decades of personal experience resolving complex familial conflict, and many years experience working with families from pre-natal to end of life. We strive to assist you in not only finding common ground and resolution in the moment, but to build better communication skills and develop tools to feel more capable of avoiding future conflict.

    Sarah specializes in mediation arising during pregnancy and in early childhood. She has owned and operated a pre-natal training business for many years, during which time she has assisted hundreds of new parents navigate the the pre- and post- realities of childbirth.

    Whelm specializes in end of life family mediation, either preceding or following a death in the family. This highly emotional time within a family can lead to considerable friction and conflict. In these situations, we bring not only our capacity as mediators but Whelm is certified as a grief counsellor and end of life doula.

    We do not offer mediation services related to divorce, child custody or alimony.

  • Civil mediation is a broad term which includes workplace and business mediation, though we separate these into their own categories. For our work, civil mediation is any conflict involving two or more people that is not workplace, business or family related.

    Here are few examples of civil mediation we offer:
    - Non-profit disputes, including board of directors conflict
    - Strata disputes
    - Conflict with non-profits, including board disputes
    - Neighbour or neighbourhood disputes
    - School disputes involving students, teachers, staff or administration
    - Relationship disputes
    - Organizational conflict

  • We are experienced in negotiating a wide variety of disputes between businesses, or between a client and a business. Our wide breadth of experience gives us a working knowledge of many business fields, including labor, law, agriculture, construction and education.

    Need assistance in the sale or transfer of a business? We have founded, negotiated and mediated the creation, sale or dissolution of multiple types of business. While we have experience in large corporate matters, our primary interest is in family or small business mediation. We can assist you in creating an agreement that is fair, equitable and satisfactory to all parties. We specialize in intergenerational family business mediation, which often involves both business acumen and a deep understanding of the interpersonal dynamics within families.

  • Conflict coaching is assisting one party in a conflict to be better prepared to find a mutually agreeable resolution by exploring the issue(s) from the perspective of all parties involved, developing improved communication skills, and discerning where you are flexible and where you are not flexible on the matter. Working with us in advance of a big talk with someone you are in conflict with can allow you to navigate the discussion in a more open, honest and productive way. Our goal in this type of work is to train you to have a basic understanding of the skills we use in mediations.

  • While we don’t mediate separations, we do provide coaching to one or both parties to optimise the experience of separation. There are many choices one can make in the early months of separation that can set each party up for a harmonious future as separate individuals. If a separating couple has children, we can coach on how they will continue to be in one another's lives as mutual parents of the children. We coach individuals and couples on how to navigate new boundaries, changes in living arrangements, redefine their roles in one another's lives, successful communication strategies, and help navigate the difficult emotions that often arise. v

    We work with one party or both parties in separation coaching.

Our Philosophy on Conflict

We believe that conflict is a normal part of being human, and that we can all learn to engage with it in a way that is healthy and productive. Our work offers a safe and open space to solve problems, and to build your capacity to effectively engage with challenging issues and interpersonal friction. 

Our primary commitment is to help you move past whatever hurdle you are a facing right now. We aim to build trust among all parties involved, to assist you in understanding each other’s motives and objectives, and to support you in finding mutual agreement, created by and for the parties. We pride ourselves in our capacity to remain neutral and foster productive sharing and exploration. 

Beyond the present conflict, we strive for our work to be transformational in your life, with the goal of building self awareness, empathy and communication tools to better avoid future conflicts. In addition to our training and experience in conflict resolution, we bring many years of experience, personally and professionally, in engaging with some of the most fragile and challenging moments in life. Sarah is also a certified birth doula who has guided hundreds of people into being parents, has operated a perinatal education and support business since 2007, and has served as a post secondary mediator and conflict coach for hundreds of university students. Whelm is also a certified grief counselor and end of life doula, assisting individuals and families to shift their relationship with death and to experience grief in a way that is healthy for each person.

Mediation is not just a hat we wear for work. It is a core component of who we are and how we engage with life. It is our great privilege to assist you in finding resolution now and a stronger awareness of yourself moving forwards.

  • Sarah Segal, mediation, coaching and conflict resolution in Nanaimo, BC

    Sarah Segal

    Qualifications:
    BA, Psychology (VIU)
    Mediation (JIBC)
    Conflict Coaching (JIBC)
    Negotiation (JIBC)
    Birth & Postpartum Doula (DONA)
    Childbirth Educator

  • Whelm King, mediation, coaching and conflict resolution in Nanaimo, BC

    Whelm King

    Qualifications:
    Mediation (JIBC)
    Conflict Coaching (JIBC)
    Negotiation (JIBC)
    Grief Couselling (Mohawk College)
    End of Life Doula (Douglas College)
    Extensive Business Management