Cathy Coleman

Cathy Coleman, Ph.D.

Petaluma, California 94952

707-334-3284

Child Custody, Child Support Modification, Collaborative Divorce, Co-Parenting, Divorce, Divorce Modification and Enforcement, Juvenile, Marital Property, Stepfamily, Workplace


Cathy Coleman has a doctoral degree in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a master’s degree in Family Studies from Washington State University. She has experience in negotiation and mediation as a Human Resources Director and Dean of Students. She was trained as a mediator at Recourse Mediation in Santa Rosa where she serves as a volunteer mediator. Her master’s thesis was a study of spousal consensus in remarried couples, and she has specialized divorce mediation and family law training from the Northern California Mediation Center.

Mediation enables parties with differences or disputes to come together and create a mutually acceptable solution or resolution. Mediation can be helpful in exploring disputes between employees, between employees and supervisors, between business partners, and between spouses or family members. The goal is to reach a workable, mutually acceptable agreement.

Divorce mediation can help couples who have decided to divorce work with a skilled third party to decide how best to make decisions about shared property, child custody and support, finances, and other aspects of a shared life that now need to be divided. With the help of a mediator, a couple can work together to reach a resolve issues by formulating ideas that consider the best interests of children and parents together. The process is voluntary, and is based on the goal of enabling the mediating parties to create resolutions that will best work for them and their family and hold up over time. Mediation has no time limit, but generally takes 4-10 sessions. It is usually much less costly and more satisfying than divorce litigation. The issues covered, but not limited to are:

  • Distribution of Property (Assets and Liabilities)
  • Child Custody, Visiting, and Parenting
  • Child Support
  • Taxes and other Financial Matters
18210 Robin Avenue
Sonoma, CA 95476

P: 707-334-3284
F: 707-935-8567
E: [email protected]