Tewkesbury Mediation
Meet our Tewkesbury Mediators
Stephanie Leibbrandt - Family Mediator - Tewkesbury
Stephanie is a fully qualified family mediator with over 20 years' experience, providing mediation services in Tewkesbury and online across England and Wales.
She is qualified to involve children in the mediation process, where parents agree, helping ensure their voices are heard. Her background includes working with children and families, restorative justice, family group conferencing, probation services, and youth offending teams, giving her a broad understanding of the challenges families can face during relationship breakdown.
Stephanie has also managed mediation and child counselling services and is a qualified life coach and Master NLP Practitioner. Drawing on a range of mediation approaches, she tailors her practice to support families in finding practical, constructive solutions.
She offers face-to-face appointments in Tewkesbury, alongside online mediation for clients throughout England and Wales.
Svitlana Stadnyk - Family mediator
Svitlana is an experienced family mediator with a passion for helping separating couples reach amicable agreements. Svitlana's background is unique, combining experience managing a national distribution company with a passion for family well-being. After realising she desired a more meaningful career path, she transitioned to family mediation in 2015. Witnessing divorcing clients reach agreements through mediation continues to be her greatest motivator.
Her dedication to the field led her to co-found the Association for Family Mediators of Ukraine. In 2019, Svitlana further expanded her expertise by training in cross-border family mediation. This allows her to support parents across borders, particularly in cases involving child abduction and other international family matters. In 2022, she completed family mediation training in the UK and is working towards accreditation.
Svitlana is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian, facilitating clear communication for all parties involved. She understands the emotional challenges of separation and is committed to creating a safe and respectful environment where you and your ex-partner can openly discuss arrangements regarding child contact, living arrangements, future communication, and co-parenting strategies. With Svitlana's guidance, you and your ex-partner can navigate the complexities of separation in a respectful environment, ultimately allowing you both to move forward with your lives.
How can family mediation help me?
At our Tewkesbury mediation office, we help couples and families work through the issues that arise when relationships break down, whether you are married, living together, separated, have never lived together, or were in a civil partnership.
At the end of the mediation process, you will receive a written summary of the agreements you have both reached voluntarily. Your mediator will guide the discussions and support constructive communication but will never make decisions on your behalf.
In Tewkesbury we offer a cost efficient and value for money service especially when compared to alternatives such as a court or legal dispute. Mediation can also be completed in less time.
We understand that separation is an emotional and challenging time. When communication has broken down, making important decisions can feel overwhelming. Family mediation provides a supportive, impartial environment where you can work together to resolve issues constructively, helping you reach practical agreements without the cost, delay, and conflict often associated with litigation.
What are the benefits to our Tewkesbury Mediation?
Improve communication and reduce conflict during separation.
Make fair, practical decisions together, with both people having an equal voice.
Keep the needs of your children at the centre of discussions, helping you reach agreements that support their wellbeing.
Find mutually acceptable solutions without the stress and expense of court proceedings.
Reach agreements more quickly than through traditional legal routes, helping you move forward sooner.
Confidentiality
Mediation is a confidential process. We will not give information to your legal or other advisers, or to any other third parties, without obtaining your joint permission. There are, however, two exceptions to this confidentiality.
The first would be where you, or any other person (most particularly a child) is at risk of serious harm. In these exceptional circumstances, we would take the necessary action to safeguard/protect the child or adult concerned, in line with both the Family Mediation Council and the College of Mediators’ Codes of Practice.
The second is where we are required to make disclosure to the appropriate government authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and/or the relevant money laundering regulations.
Affiliations
All our mediators are individual members of the College of Mediators, www.collegeofmediators.co.uk, who are members of the Family Mediation Council.
All our mediators are members and they are all required to undertake regular training to maintain our high professional standards and update their practice. In addition some mediators are members of other recognised organisations.
Our mediators are professional, experienced and independent. They are registered with the Family Mediation Council (FMC) as FMC Accredited Family Mediators (FMCA) for family and child arrangements, which authorises us to conduct Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings – MIAMs.
File Storage
We will return any original documents requested during mediation to you as soon as we can. Mediation files are securely stored electronically at the main office and confidentially destroyed six months after the case closure date (the last contact with the mediator). In financial cases the mediator will destroy any sensitive financial material as soon as they have completed a financial schedule. Once a file has been destroyed, any further contact will be considered a new referral and case.
Complaints and Compliments
We welcome constructive comments about the service we provide, and we also periodically seek the views of a sample of users. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.