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First educated in Bombay-Mumbai, India where she was born, Pearl passed with First Class Honors in the Senior Cambridge examinations. In the United States she attended Southern Oregon University and received a joint BS/MS degreee Integrated Sciences (Psychology, Sociology and Communication). The major emphasis of the integration of these sciences was to serve as a mediator.
Psychology covered Family & Marriage Counseling; Child Development; Malajusted Child; Abnormal Psychology; Family Systems; and Personality
Sociology covered the Public Health results of divorce/abnormal parenting; Deviant Behavior; Cultural & Gender Biases
Communication covered Advanced Strategies; Theory and Application; Negotiation; Conflict Resolution; Gender Communication; Age and Cultural Communication
During this period of study, Pearl also attended seminars and became a Practitioner Member of the Academy of Family Mediators. These seminars provided study in family law; domestic violence protocol; couples in high conflict; power imbalance and ways to balance power; personality disorders; child abuse; assessment, reporting and treatment. Pearl is presently an Advanced Practitioner in the Family Sector of the Association for Conflict Resolution.
As a Family Court Mediator, Pearl conducated separate and joint sessions with parents and sometimes, their children. The goal was to enable clients to create their own agreements; a commitment to the best interests of the children; provide educative materials to the parents; create a safe environment to work toward the best possible parenting plans. During approximately 10 years as a Shasta County Court Mediator, Pearl averaged almost 450 sessions annually with divorcing or separating couples. There was not a single mediation that resembled any other family in essence or character. The stories varied as did the backgrounds of the participants. The families were diverse in traditions and financial capacity. The level of anger and hostility also varied as did the ability of the children to cope with a new family status. This tremendous volume of experience gives SoFair Mediation the capacity to better understand and help families to deal with a changed reality and to move forward to their new lives. |