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Mediation |
EMCC Mediation Centre in Singapore:
Providing Neutral Ground for Dialogue
Mediation is a respectful, non-judgmental way to resolve disagreements with the help of a neutral third party. At EMCC, our mediation centre offers a safe and balanced space where all voices are heard, relationships are prioritised, and constructive solutions are found together.
What is Mediation
If you are in a dispute where both sides have taken different positions and cannot find common ground, mediation can help.
Mediation is a process where an impartial third party facilitates open discussions between conflicting parties. The goal is to encourage communication, explore alternatives, and work towards solutions acceptable to all.
Unlike litigation, mediation is less expensive, less combative, and focused on preserving relationships while resolving issues.
Our Approach to Mediating Disputes
At EMCC, we put people and relationships first. We believe that preserving relationships is as important as finding solutions. By helping parties communicate more constructively, we not only address the conflict at hand but also reduce the risk of future breakdowns.
An approach that focuses only on outcomes, without caring for people and process, may harm relationships beyond repair. That is why our mediation is people-centred, balancing solutions with respect and understanding.
Our Mediation Process at EMCC
We do not believe in a “one-size-fits-all” model. Depending on the needs of the parties, we use facilitative, transformative, or blended mediation styles.
Initial Consultation
We start with a confidential chat, either one-on-one or as a group. This gives us a chance to understand everyone’s concerns and goals and choose the mediation style that best fits the situation.
Appointing a Mediator
Next, we match you with an impartial mediator who suits your case. Their role is to guide the conversation towards clarity and consensus, not to take sides or decide for you.
Mediation Sessions
In a safe and respectful space, we help all parties share their perspectives and explore mutual interests. This is about finding constructive solutions that everyone can live with. The initial mediation session is for 3 hours. This session may be split into two 1.5-hour sessions, if necessary.
Integrated Support
We understand that mediation can be emotional or overwhelming. That’s why we’re ready to offer follow-up support (either on an individual basis or as a group) to help parties process their experience constructively.
Who Should Come for Mediation?
Mediation at EMCC is open to anyone facing relationship challenges, whether personal, professional, or family-related. If you find yourselves stuck in conflict, mediation offers a structured, supportive way forward.
Disputing couples in disagreement over specific issues
When discussions become stuck or drifting off-topic, mediation helps couples refocus and work toward a shared resolution.
Divorced or divorcing couples dealing with custody, maintenance and property disputes
Mediation provides a calmer, more cooperative alternative to the courts in sensitive matters like custody, financial support, and dividing assets.
Colleagues at the workplace dealing with conflicts
It offers a safe way for employees to talk things through. Mediation helps address misunderstandings, work relationships, or tensions before conflict escalates.
Persons involved in inter-organisational disputes
Mediation is ideal for resolving disagreements between different organisations or teams, fostering productive communication and mutual solutions.
Family disputes on eldercare, probate and estate matters
Complex family concerns such as caring roles, wills, or inheritance can be navigated thoughtfully and fairly through mediation.
Anyone involved in a relational dispute
Whether the conflict is personal or professional, mediation helps preserve dignity, restore understanding, and pave the way toward resolution.
Benefits of Mediation at EMCC
At EMCC, our mediation service offers a safe, respectful space for resolving conflict.
Confidential, impartial, and respectful process
Every session is held in strict confidence, with a neutral mediator guiding the conversation fairly and respectfully.
Cost-effective alternative to litigation
Mediation offers a quicker, less costly way to resolve disputes compared to court proceedings.
Encourages constructive communication
Participants are supported in sharing their views clearly and honestly, fostering mutual understanding and cooperative dialogue.
Preserves relationships while resolving disputes
By steering away from adversarial formats, mediation helps preserve relationship rather than creating barriers.
Offers integrated counselling support if needed
Where tension lingers after mediation, ongoing counselling support is available to help you process and move forward positively.
Our Mediators
Our professionally trained and experienced mediators facilitate discussions and negotiations between disputing parties. Through mediation, we help to repair, preserve and improve the relationships between them. Mediation helps our clients to move forward in their lives stronger, more resilient and with healthier relationships.
Lim Tat is the Managing Partner of Aequitas Law LLP. His wide spectrum of practice includes conflict and dispute management, de-escalation and resolution. He adopts a multifaceted approach and utilises varied mediation styles to obtain optimal outcomes for parties in conflict.
He is an IMI-certified mediation advocate and an IMI-certified mediator. Lim Tat is also on the panel of Principal Mediators of SMC for family/healthcare matters and has frequently taught mediation courses at SMC. He is the Chairman of the Society of Mediation Professionals and is passionate about building up the mediation community in Singapore.
He has been an advocate and solicitor of Singapore since 1989 and has received appointments as an expert in Singapore law for foreign court proceedings, and as arbitrator in institutional arbitrations. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and a Weinstein JAMS International Fellow. He is on the international panels of many distinguished arbitration and mediation institutions, including the SIMC and AAA-ICDR. He is a regional consultant and mediator of the CAO, IFC, World Bank Group and a member of the Global Mediation Panel of the Office of the Ombudsman for the United Nations Funds and Programmes.
He has extensive experience as mediation counsel and mediator in complex cross-jurisdictional disputes. Yet his down-to-earth demeanor and approachability give him excellent rapport with couples and families struggling with conflicted relationships. More recently, Lim Tat has completed The Gottman Clinical Training in Couples Counselling Level 1 and is interested in the application of such training in the mediations he conducts.
Li Choo received mediation training from, and is accredited by, Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). Her focus is on helping couples, families and community organisations that are in conflict to improve communication and better manage their relationships. She uses both the facilitative and transformative styles of mediation and customises the approach to the needs of the parties in dispute.
Li Choo is a trained lawyer qualified in Singapore and Hong Kong. She is a certified trainer for the Seven Principles for Making Marriages Work programme (The Gottman Institute) and the Prepare/Enrich Marriage preparation programme. She has also attended Level 1 & 2 Clinical Training of the Gottman Method Couples Therapy. More recently, she has completed the New Ways for Mediation training conducted by Mr Bill Eddy of The High Conflict Institute USA.
Her experience includes roles as a partner in a large Singapore law firm where she led transactions in Singapore and Hong Kong, a consultant with international recruitment firms focusing on legal recruitment, a teacher and leader of scripture classes (with close to 300 regular attendees) in the US and Singapore of a faith-based international organisation, and as a media law lecturer at an institute of higher learning in Singapore.
These various roles and diverse living experiences in Tokyo, Hong Kong and the US have honed her different skills, particularly the ability to listen empathetically, communicate pro-actively and negotiate effectively.
Linda discovered and fell in love with mediation at the Harvard Program on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, United States in 2004. Since then, she has mediated a wide variety of commercial and relational disputes and gets immense satisfaction from using her skills to help parties overcome communication breakdowns and impasse.
Linda was one of the earliest mediators in Singapore who trained with Regents University (London) in Psychology and Mediation and this has informed and benefited her mediation practice. In 2015, Linda contributed a chapter on “Psychology and Interest-Based Mediation” in Mediation in Singapore: A Practical Guide (Thomson Reuters Sweet & Maxwell).
She has been trained and accredited by Singapore Mediation Center (SMC) where she is a Principal Mediator, Center for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR Asia) and is also a certified mediator with the Singapore International Mediation Institution (SIMI), and the International Mediation Institution (IMI). In addition she is an appointed international mediator on the panel of the Mainland-Hong Kong Joint Mediation Center (MHKJC). Linda is also a fellow of the Singapore International Arbitration Center and an accredited conflict coach with Conflict Coaching International (Australia).
Linda is an active trainer in negotiations and conflict resolution for a range of institutions and organisations, training professionals from the business, education, medical, legal and public sectors and has conducted mediation training for civil servants in Sri Lanka and Thailand.
More recently, Linda has co-founded and is the CEO of ResoX which is a digital platform to connect users to mediation and arbitration professionals, combining her fervour for mediation advocacy and peacemaking, with filling a gap in the market.
Michelle has a passion for the welfare of children in family disputes. Having served as a District Judge in the Family and Juvenile Justice Division, now the Family Justice Courts, she has seen the negative impact divorce, separation and family conflict can have on children. She seeks in her mediation practice to limit such negative impacts by helping parents communicate better through her facilitation of their conflict discussions.
She is the first Singaporean woman appointed as Certified Mediator under the International Mediation Institute and has an over 90% mediation settlement rate. She is a Principal Mediator with the Singapore Mediation Centre under the Family and Healthcare Panels, and is also a SIMI certified mediator. She has undergone extensive mediation training including cross border and child focused courses, and mediating litigated cases.
Qualified as a lawyer in Singapore, Michelle has over 24 years’ worth of experience in dispute resolution and has been ranked as “Family & Matrimonial Practice Lawyer of the Year” in Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2020. She is a Director of the law firm Quahe Woo & Palmer LLC where she has an active family law practice.
Michelle is committed to using her legal and mediation skills to build up the community around her and to help make the lives of children of divorcing or separating parents better.
For slightly over the past decade, Audrey has been working with families and couples aiding them to come to peaceful resolutions out of their conflicts. Her caring and warm demeanor puts people at ease and encourages others to connect well.
Audrey began her mediation training in Hong Kong with the Accord Group from Australia and thereafter trained with the Singapore Mediation Centre and the Pepperdine School of Law. Audrey is a SIMI certified mediator and a court appointed volunteer mediator with the State Courts of Singapore.
Audrey is a Collaborative Family Practice panel mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre and also a parenting coordinator trained in the inaugural class of the Family Justice Courts. She is a member of the Hong Kong Mediation Accreditation Association Limited’s panel of General mediators, having practised as a solicitor for over 12 years there subsequent to qualifying as a solicitor in the UK. She is currently practising with LexCompass LLC in Singapore.
Audrey seeks to bring conflicting parties together and cares about restoring the strained relationships through her mediation work.
Yue-En is the Managing Director of Bethel Chambers LLC. He is an experienced family mediator that seeks peaceful resolutions for couples and families so they can avoid acrimonious cases in court. As a mediator, he is passionate about aiding parties in conciliatory discussions so they can move forward and out of their conflict.
Yue-En is an Associate Mediator on the Family Panel of Mediators at SMC, where he is also a Mediation Coach. He additionally has accreditations in Mediation from SIMI and Regents’ University London.
Yue-En has, in addition to his undergraduate law degree, a Masters of Law (LLM) specialising in Social Care Law, where his dissertation focused on analysing the safeguards in the UK and Singapore protecting patients from financial abuse by Court appointed Deputies and LPA Donees. He is an accredited Professional Deputy and Donee for the purposes of the Mental Capacity Act.
Further he is an Accredited Parenting Coordinator and Collaborative Family Practice lawyer for family cases. Yue-En assist clients, both international and in Singapore in divorces, adoptions and other estate and Mental Capacity Matters.
Uniquely, he also has a Masters in Counselling which informs his practice as a mediator as it gives him additional skills in managing parties who are struggling emotionally and having difficulty working through a conflict.
Ivy is a Level 2 Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) Accredited Mediator, an Associate Mediator and Associate Trainer for Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC) and Eagles Mediation and Counselling Centre (EMCC). Since 2008, she has mediated a number of commercial and relational disputes at the mediation centres, she was also a volunteer at the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) at the State Courts, mediating small claim disputes. She finds great fulfilment in helping disputing parties work through their issues to arrive at a mutually acceptable outcome through mediation.
Harold is a seasoned family law practitioner having qualified as a lawyer in Singapore since 1982.
Harold has conducted mediation (family/matrimonial and commercial matters) with SMC since his accreditation in 2009. He was subsequently appointed as a Principal Mediator (including being a member of a panel of Family Mediators in May 2015) with SMC. Additionally, he is a Mediator with the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents. He has also been appointed Volunteer Mediator with the Family Justice Courts and continues to do so at the State Courts. Harold is also appointed a Senior Mediator with the Law Society of Singapore under it’s LSMS Scheme.
Apart from conducting mediation, Harold has also joined the Training Arm of SMC and is actively involved as a Mediation Coach and Assessor for both Mediation and Mediation Advocacy.
Harold is also appointed as a Child Representative and Parenting Coordinator to assist the Family Justice Courts after meeting the requisite requirements for these roles.
He has received numerous awards and accolades for his work with the courts, legal industry and Mediation institutions. These included the State Courts Outstanding Volunteer Plaque (Advocates & Solicitors) 2011; Law Society Plaque of Appreciation 2012; Family Justice Court Plaque – Volunteer Mediator from 2014 till 2018; Judiciary Long-Service Plaque – Court Volunteer (Mediator) from 2020; SMC Award (for period January 2021 to April 2024-towards training); The Community Justice Centre Justice Defender Award 2024.
Harold’s current focus is on sharing his wealth of experience in mediation with others to uplift and increase the use of mediation as an alternate form of dispute resolution in Singapore. His goal is also to help rebuild or restore relationships, where parties are willing, which have been strained by various disputes (especially matrimonial and family).
Frequently Asked Questions about Our Mediation Centre
Whether you’re curious about mediation or considering starting the process, these four common questions can help you understand what to expect.
What is mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary and private process where a neutral third party helps those in conflict explore solutions together. The mediator does not take sides or make decisions for you.
How is mediation different from litigation in court?
Mediation and litigation take very different approaches to resolving disputes.
Litigation is a formal court process where a judge makes a binding decision after hearing both sides. It can be adversarial in nature, often involves lawyers, and may take considerable time and cost before a final outcome is reached.
Mediation, by contrast, is a voluntary and confidential process. A neutral mediator facilitates structured discussions between parties to help them reach a mutually acceptable agreement. The focus is on practical solutions rather than winning or losing, and the process is generally more flexible, less time-consuming, and often less costly than going to court.
Is mediation confidential?
Yes. Everything shared in mediation remains private, creating a safe environment where all parties can speak openly and honestly.
Who guides the mediation process and how long will it take?
The mediation process is guided by a trained and neutral mediator from EMCC. The mediator facilitates the conversation, ensures that each party has the opportunity to be heard, and helps structure the discussion so that key issues can be addressed constructively.
The length of mediation can vary depending on the complexity of the dispute and the willingness of parties to engage. Some matters may be resolved within a single session, while others may require more time. The mediator will discuss the expected process and timeframe with you at the outset, so you have a clearer understanding of what to expect.
What kind of disputes can be mediated?
At EMCC, we focus mainly on relational disputes, situations where ongoing relationships matter and preserving dignity and respect is important. If you are wondering whether your situation is suitable for mediation, the following are some of the common matters we handle at our mediation centre in Singapore:
1. Marital disputes, including issues relating to separation or divorce.
2. Parent and child conflicts, where communication has broken down or tensions have escalated at home.
3. Disagreements between siblings or relatives, particularly those connected to eldercare responsibilities.
4. Probate or estate-related disputes, where family members may hold differing expectations or interpretations.
5. Conflicts between colleagues or business partners that affect working relationships and collaboration.
6. Disputes within community or voluntary organisations.
If you are unsure whether your matter falls within these categories, you are welcome to reach out. Mediation is often suitable whenever there is a relationship worth preserving and a willingness to have a structured, guided conversation.
What is the difference between counselling and mediation?
Although counselling and mediation use similar communication skills, their purposes differ.
Mediation focuses on helping two or more parties resolve a specific conflict. The mediator remains neutral and guides a structured discussion aimed at reaching a mutually acceptable agreement. It is not therapy and does not explore broader emotional issues beyond the dispute.
Counselling, in contrast, is a therapeutic process centred on an individual’s emotional and psychological well-being. It may address personal challenges, relational concerns, or life transitions, and typically takes place over several sessions.
What is the difference between seeing a mediator and a lawyer?
A mediator’s role is to help parties have a structured and respectful conversation so they can work out how to move forward. The mediator remains neutral and does not take sides. They do not provide legal advice or assess the strength of your case against the other party.
A lawyer, on the other hand, advises you on your legal rights and remedies. Their role is to represent your interests and guide you on legal options, including court proceedings if necessary.
In Singapore, parties are often encouraged to consider mediation as part of alternative dispute resolution before pursuing litigation. Mediation can also be less costly than proceeding directly through the court process, depending on the circumstances.
Do I need to hire a lawyer for mediation?
No, you do not need to hire a lawyer in order to take part in mediation.
That said, EMCC welcomes the presence of lawyers if parties prefer to have legal representation during the process. If one party chooses to bring a lawyer, the other party will be informed and given the opportunity to do the same.
Mediation remains a facilitated conversation focused on resolving the dispute, whether or not lawyers are present.
Will mediation always result in an agreement or settlement?
Mediation is a voluntary process. Parties choose whether to participate and may also decide to end the process at any time.
Because the outcome depends on the parties themselves, there is no guarantee that every mediation will end in an agreement. However, with the guidance of a neutral mediator, parties often gain clearer understanding of each other’s perspectives and are able to explore options they may not have previously considered.
Even where a full settlement is not reached, mediation can help clarify issues and support more informed decisions about the next steps.
Is the settlement reached in mediation legally binding?
An agreement reached at the end of mediation can be legally binding if it is put in writing and signed by all parties.
Where the mediation has been conducted by a certified mediator or administered by a designated mediation service provider, parties may also apply to have the written settlement recorded as a court order under the Mediation Act 2017. This provides an additional layer of enforceability. Whether this option is available will depend on the circumstances of your case, and our team can advise you further on this.
What happens if the mediation does not help me in my conflict?
If mediation does not lead to a resolution, you remain free to pursue your legal rights and remedies against the other party. Participating in mediation does not take away or reduce those rights.
Mediation is a private and confidential process. Information shared during the sessions cannot be disclosed outside the mediation without the consent of all participants.
In addition, mediation is conducted on a without prejudice basis. This means that statements made or proposals discussed during mediation generally cannot be used against you in court or in other legal proceedings.
What should I do if the other party does not agree to a mediation session?
Mediation is a voluntary process, which means all parties must be willing to participate for it to proceed.
If the other party is not ready to try mediation, you may still arrange a one-hour session with our Mediation Specialist. During this session, you can process the situation, explore your options, and learn practical communication strategies to better manage the conflict.
Where appropriate, our Mediation Specialist may also assist in contacting the other party to explain the mediation process and invite them to consider participating. This outreach service is chargeable at $40 per call.
How much will mediation cost?
Mediation is generally a relatively low-cost way of resolving disputes. With EMCC’s subsidised rates, the service is designed to remain affordable and accessible.
Fees may vary depending on the nature and duration of the case. You may contact our office directly for more information on the applicable rates and available subsidies.
How can I start the process of mediation?
To begin, you may submit your details through our Mediation Enquiry Form.
Once we receive your enquiry, our Intake Officer will contact you to arrange a one-hour consultation session with our Mediation Specialist. This initial session allows you to share more about your situation and understand how the mediation process can proceed.
If you have any questions before submitting the form, you are welcome to contact us directly for assistance.
Enquire About Mediation at Our Centre
If you're ready to take the next step toward understanding, healing, or resolution, we’re here to guide you. Reach out today to discuss how mediation at EMCC can help your situation with care, neutrality, and respect at the heart of every conversation.
Fill in a Mediation Enquiry Form
