Panellist- Anna Faoagali

By providing a panel of mediators, Brisbane Mediations is able to offer a range of mediators with particular specialities.

One such mediator is Anna Faoagali who is particularly adept at assisting parties in conflict over commercial and workplace issues and is highly regarded in Workplace dispute resolution.

Anna undertook formal training at the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria), where she worked for four years.

Anna's contracts for Complaint Management, Appeals and Dispute Resolution have included: The Energy and Water Ombudsman, Commonwealth Ombudsman,Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, Queensland Ombudsman, Relationship Centres and Interlock.

Anna has also been engaged by a number of Employee Assistance Programs to deliver Workplace Intakes, Mediations and Workshops.

Despite her penchant for Workplace dispute resolution, Anna is also a Registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and able to issue S60I Certificates under The Family Law Act 1975 and has over ten years experience in Clinical Mediation and Facilitation.

Please address all enquiries to Brisbane Mediations at resolve@brisbanemediations.com.au or to our website www.brisbanemediations.com.au

2015 has started with a bang at Brisbane Mediations

Like the fireworks most of us observed in person or electronically at midnight on the 1st of January, 2015 has started with a bang at Brisbane Mediations.


We have taken time out to look at what we did well in 2014 and what we may be able to improve or add to our services in 2015.  We're back on deck energised and ready to listen.


Judging by the people who have already rung Krystina or come through our door for intake discussions this week, at least some problem situations have not magically disappeared over the Christmas holiday period.


This year, as always, we intend to deliver non-judgmental, supportive and skilled conflict management to our clients.   


We must of course remain neutral and not "take sides" or lecture parties about what we believe is the best way to resolve their disputes.  We do, however, challenge and assist with reality testing of desired outcomes, helping our clients to realise that just as there are at least two sides to every story, there are at least two perspectives to every dispute.  The old saying, "It takes two to tango" could be modified to, "It takes at least two to create conflict".


Whether your dispute is the result of a relationship separation, entrenched tensions between extended family members, workplace disagreements or conflict over an estate you think has been unfairly apportioned, the Brisbane Mediations team is trained and equipped to assist.


It is our role to guide people in dispute to a resolution they can live with and that allows them to move on with their lives - if possible, without harbouring resentment. The team at Brisbane Mediations derive pleasure from seeing our clients relieved of the burden of emotionally draining and often financially expensive disputes. We've all seen enough of those in the Court system.


Life is short.  Let's all make the most of it.  At Brisbane Mediations we like to say, Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.  Just because you've had bad luck with someone significant in your world, you don't have to live the rest of your life with conflict, stress and regret.  We aim to help our clients chalk it up to experience, let go of the bitterness and move on.


We know that the people who come to see us are usually hurting and feeling betrayed. Those feelings take time to heal, but we would love to start you off in a more positive direction with an agreement that, no matter how hard won,  all parties can at least tolerate. Over time, the conflict can become a blip on the horizon.


Come in and see us and make 2015 your best year yet!

Mediation a good option for veteran emergency services workers

In counselling emergency service workers I have found many of the veterans of long careers feel caught in a time warp arising from massive changes in their fields over the past fifteen to twenty years.

It is common for these workers to lament times gone by when their service was run at a neighbourhood level - from the raising of funds to the dispatching of crews. They often recall feeling more supported by management who had more realistic expectations than they feel exist today.

Whilst skill levels, response times and outcomes may have improved, members of these services often report that they used to feel closer to their communities, more valued and more fulfilled in their work "in the old days" than they do now. Standards and practices have moved forward but with these changes has come inevitable depersonalization and workers often feel like little cogs in a big impersonal wheel.

The workers often blame "management" and a common cry is, "They didn't support me when I needed it and now I am on my own". Mediation before the situation becomes so critical could be the answer for some of these workers.

For others, counselling will be more effective. I often encourage these workers to liken their career experience to a successful relationship that has been mutually rewarding for a long time, but may have run its course. I help them consider all available options and look at other ways they might be able to utilise their skills and experience - perhaps even outside emergency services.

Denise Britton

Mediation Facilitates Ongoing Relationships

Mediation facilitates ongoing relationships

Mediation is less likely to harm on-going relationships than litigation – commercial arrangements between suppliers and customers; parenting relationships between separated parents with mutual parenting responsibilities to fulfil; or working relationships between co-workers / workers and managers who have clashed in the workplace.

In mediation, disputing parties enlist the assistance of a neutral person (the mediator) to help identify issues in dispute and explore options and alternatives to reach an agreement that will accommodate their respective needs.

With litigation, however, courts review opposing versions of disputes and provide a decision based on the evidence in each side’s affidavits or stories about the dispute and what they say in court. The decision almost always endorses one view of a case and rejects the other, costs often being awarded to the successful party, thereby punishing the other.

Litigation by its very nature highlights and accentuates differences, with barristers’ cross-examinations exposing weaknesses in the other side’s version of events. Mediation on the other hand, looks for common ground and strives for agreement.

Litigation encourages a winner take all approach. Mediation looks for a win/win outcome.

Considerable damage is inevitably done to ongoing personal relationships (for example, between parents or between beneficiaries under a will) when each person, in seeking to have their version accepted, tries to destroy the other’s case. Similarly, in the commercial field, time in court is highly unlikely to engender an ongoing relationship – particularly when at the end of the day one party is the victor and the other the vanquished, left to pick up the pieces.

When a result is imposed by a court, one party may leave the courtroom happy and the other disgruntled and bitter. The trial process has most likely eroded the previous relationship even more and increased the chance that these people will struggle indefinitely to relate into the future – personally or commercially, as the case may be.

At Mediation, however, seemingly warring parties often shake hands or communicate in a genial manner at the end of the day, a copy of the signed agreement in hand as they leave. A result has been reached by consensus rather than by being imposed by a stranger.

Dignity has been maintained and the vestiges of a relationship remain intact with a chance of enrichment in the future. In the commercial arena there is every chance that the parties will continue their mutually beneficial relationship, particularly where they have found a solution which ultimately accommodates the needs of both.

Mediation involves savings, not only in material costs, but also in costs to relationships.

Mediation in the Workplace saves Jobs and Money

How often do helping professionals deal with people in conflict within the workplace? Perhaps it it is “a personality clash”. Perhaps different interpretations of regulations or procedures. Or maybe there has been a serious breach of protocol by a boss and a grievance should issue, but the worker fears reprisals or impact on future plans for occupational advancement. How much time and money is lost because workers feel they are not being heard? How much stress related sick leave and how many WorkCover claims would not ensue if issues in the work place were dealt with in a timely and effective manner at an early stage?Brisbane Mediations’ mediators have experience in dealing with disputes of all kinds, including those which originate in the workplace. Even where there are multiple parties and stakeholders, we know we can make a difference, as we have done it on many occasions before. Large and small companies, government departments and organisations such as private and state schools and colleges as well as their employees have benefited from our interventions. We can work with support people who are not lawyers - for instance with psychologists who are supporting workers through conflictual situations in their employment. Your clients could benefit enormously from a collegial relationship between you and Brisbane Mediations. We help all involved save money and save face.

Mediation - around the table or in separate rooms?

People attending mediations often say they are nervous about sitting in the same room as the other party and ask about mediating from separate rooms or via a "shuttle" process.

In the majority of cases, even where there is considerable tension between the parties, I encourage them to at least commence their mediation around the one table.

The reasons include the following:

In my experience, it is generally beneficial to the mediation process for the parties to hear each other's concerns and issues directly;

They can each be more confident that the other party has in fact heard them;

They each hear an unabridged version of the other's views and not what the mediator has paraphrased;

By "breaking the ice" between parties who may not have spoken directly to each other for some time, the opportunity arises in many instances for some helpful discussion;

Brainstorming of options can be facilitated more effectively when the parties are in the same room;

Having a mediator or mediators present provides a safe environment in which to set the scene for an ongoing relationship between the parties (for example, when co-parenting after separation or divorce or needing to continue as colleagues in the workplace);

Some release of negative emotion is more likely if both parties are in the same room and when managed by a skilled and sensitive mediator this will often clear the way for more helpful and productive negotiation of solutions;

There is less chance of parties becoming suspicious about an alliance forming between the mediator and the other party;

The mediator's time is saved as he or she does not need to run between rooms and parties from the outset of the mediation;

If either party finds it too difficult to remain in the same room as the other party then it is a simple matter to change to shuttle mode at any time;

Parties are often most grateful for the opportunity to deal directly with the other party, whilst being supported by an even handed process.

Denise Britton
Co-Principal Brisbane Mediations