About

Helping Ontario families navigate divorce with compassion, clarity, and long-term peace, Reflective Mediation is a modern, mindful approach to separation, divorce, and family transitions. We specialize in helping individuals and couples reach practical agreements — while also healing communication and reducing emotional fallout. We are Accredited Family Mediators serving clients virtually across Ontario, with extensive experience in comprehensive separation agreements (parenting plans, financial settlements), intergenerational issues, and conflict management coaching.

What Makes Reflective Mediation Different?

Deep Listening and Relationship Repair

We believe mediation should be more than just "legal lite." Our method reduces conflict by emphasizing emotional safety, validation, and real-time communication skills. By creating a respectful, non-adversarial space, we help clients feel heard and empowered — even in high-stress situations.

Practical Agreements + Personal Growth

We work toward the same legal outcomes as any family lawyer — a binding Separation Agreement or Parenting Plan — but we also help clients gain communication skills, reduce future conflict, and move forward with dignity, with or without the use of AI Transcription technology as requested by the client(s).

Emotional Awareness & Mindfulness

Unlike conventional models, Reflective Mediation includes emotional processing and mindfulness-informed techniques to reduce reactivity. It’s not therapy — but it is therapeutic.

Our Philosophy

“I want to change the way people experience themselves in difficult conversations.” – Mike MacConnell

Reflective Mediation integrates ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) with emotional insight, mindful reflection, and coaching. Our goal isn't just to resolve your immediate dispute, but to equip you with tools for healthier relationships — with co-parents, family members, and yourself.

Meet the Founder: Mike MacConnell
Mike MacConnell (AccFM, AccIM, QMed, OCT)
Director of Reflective Mediation
Author of The Yoga of Divorce: A Mindful Route to Resolving Disputes

Mike MacConnell didn't set out to become a family mediator. Looking back, however, it's clear that every stage of his life prepared him for this work.

Born in Asbestos (now Val-des-Sources), Quebec, and raised in Toronto's Don Mills neighbourhood, Mike developed an early fascination with the questions that shape our lives: Why do people believe what they believe? Why do some conversations bring people together while others drive them apart?

Those questions led him to study Religious Studies at the University of Toronto, where he graduated in 1976 with the Gold Medal in Religious Studies from St. Michael's College. After completing Teachers College, he spent more than three decades in education. In 1989, he co-founded SOLA (School of Liberal Arts), an independent university-preparatory high school built on the belief that education should develop thoughtful, independent people who can think critically, communicate clearly, and take responsibility for both their work and their character.

Although Mike loved teaching, life eventually offered him a different classroom.

Following the end of a long marriage and the collapse of his business, he experienced firsthand the emotional and practical challenges of separation. Rather than viewing that chapter simply as a personal loss, he chose to see it as an opportunity for growth. Around the same time, a committed yoga and mindfulness practice profoundly influenced his understanding of conflict. Inspired by teachers such as Pema Chödrön, Jack Kornfield, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, he came to see conflict not as something to avoid or win, but as something that can be approached with curiosity, courage, compassion, and awareness.

That perspective ultimately led him to retrain as a family mediator and establish Reflective Mediation in 2013. Today he is an Accredited Family Mediator, Accredited Intergenerational Mediator, communication coach, author, and former Professor of Family Mediation at Humber College.

Mike doesn't see mediation as a dramatic departure from teaching. As a teacher, he helped students think more clearly. As a mediator, he helps people communicate more clearly. In both roles, his purpose has been the same: to listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions, encourage honest reflection, and create the conditions for people to discover solutions they can genuinely own.

His approach reflects a simple belief: people are far more than the conflict that brings them to mediation. They are capable individuals navigating one of life's most difficult transitions. His role is not to take sides or dictate outcomes, but to provide a respectful, balanced environment where lasting agreements can emerge—agreements that honour both the future of the family and, when children are involved, their best interests.

If you're looking for someone to take sides, Mike is probably not the right mediator. But if you're looking for someone who will listen deeply, challenge you respectfully, and help you build a durable path forward, he'd be honoured to help.

Credentials

• B.A., University of Toronto (1976)

• Gold Medal in Religious Studies (World Religions), St. Michael's College, University of Toronto (1976)

• B.Ed., University of Toronto (1978)

• Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) – English Specialist (1978)

• Co-founder, SOLA (School of Liberal Arts) (1989)

• Accredited Family Mediator (AccFM) (2013)

• Qualified Mediator (QMed) (2013)

• Founder, Reflective Mediation (2014)

• Accredited Intergenerational Mediator (AccIM) (2016)

• Author, The Yoga of Divorce: A Mindful Route to Resolving Disputes (2016)

• Former Professor of Family Mediation, Humber College (2017–2020)

• Published Online Course: Mediator’s Launchpad & Toolkit (2025)
  

Meet The Team

With an undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia, and years of running a successful events business, Alex switched gears to a more meaningful path of helping others through the difficulty of separation and divorce.

After completing schooling from both Humber College and York University, Alex opened her practice with the goal of using a facilitative approach to support her clients through the often cathartic and always empowering process of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mediation is a personalized service addressing the needs and concerns of individual cases allowing for much more of a targeted approach to agreement. As a Certified Coach as well as an Accredited Family Mediator (Acc.FM), Alex is able to assist clients to devise a plan that is just right for them.

With a practice specializing in online Mediation, Alex is able to provide a service that allows clients to prioritize getting the help they need without having to leave the comfort of their own home, worry about childcare, or wrestle with traffic or weather.

With over two decades working with people in stressful situations, Alex is no stranger to the difficulties that those in conflict face and is skillful in helping folks not just manage those situations, but truly thrive.

Amanda has extensive experience with high-conflict files and uses this experience and conflict-resolution skills to help de-escalate conflict to support parties in coming to a resolution. In addition to mediation, Amanda also provides separation and divorce coaching for individuals going through the divorce process. 

Amanda completed her mediation training through York University and Family Mediation Training Canada. After going through the divorce process herself, Amanda was inspired to become a family mediator with the hope of helping others going through separation and divorce.

In addition to being a family mediator, Amanda is also a teacher and a member of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). She spent several years teaching kindergarten before moving on to grades six through eight. Amanda has extensive experience working with children and families from a variety of backgrounds. She takes great pride in her ability to bring families together, improve communication, and assist them in coming to a resolution.

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