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Business & Tech

Husband-Wife Team Provides Mediation Services In Douglaston

Couple operates problem solving center on 235th Street.

Not long ago, Douglaston's Greg Gina was presented with an irreconcilable difference.

Two teenagers, who had a baby together, were fighting over custody for the child and visitation hours.

Gina listened to the mother’s complaints about the father’s "inappropriate, irresponsible behavior" as well as the father’s arguments about his parental rights.

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He then set up a visitation schedule on a document that both parties signed.

“Then, they were on their happy way,” said Gina, who reported no post-mediation issues with the couple.

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During another instance, a client’s alcohol abuse was destroying a marriage. Gina listened to both sides of the conflict and decided that the partners should sign an agreement under which the alcohol abuser would agree to consequences if he didn’t follow a treatment regime, such as visit a therapist and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Signing a document is typically the formality that ends a successful mediation, said Gina, who founded the Douglaston Mediation Center on 235th Street about one year ago with his wife, general practice attorney Bernadette Crowley.

But he emphasized that the real problem-solving takes place when couples begin to listen to each other during mediation sessions. That’s when a path to resolution forms.

“Mediation identifies issues,” he said. “You’re helping them to converse in a proper way. You gotta read people.”

Added Crowley: “If they want to talk for three hours - if that’s what they need, that’s fine.”

Most of the cases Gina and Crowley take involve landlord and tenant disputes or family and marital conflicts, Crowley said. But she also takes part in elder mediation, which primarily revolves around end-of-life care and estate dissolution.

She said she once responded to a bullying situation at a local public school.

Gina said both parties come to an agreement an estimated 90 percent of the time, although he gave a lot of credit to his clients.

“The biggest work is in deciding to come in. It’s the first push,” he said. “People are so angry that they don’t see the benefit. You gotta get together and focus on the goal.”

Crowley and Gina charge $300 an hour for their services, which usually takes place at night and on weekends with strict confidentiality rules. They said offer a sliding-scale pay rate for clients with limited financial resources.

Gina said the company's service often prevents clients from going to court.

“Once you feed into the [legal] system, it becomes so adversarial and expensive,” he said.

He said he believes more people should be trained in the field.

“If we all became mediators, the world would be a much better place,” he said.

For more information, call 516-659-4844.

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