After graduating from UCLA law school, I worked as a family law attorney. Then, in 1979, I founded the Center for Enforcement of Family Support. This practice led me to discuss legal issues around child and spousal support. I appeared on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Sonia Friedman Live, CNN, CBS, and even "Dear Abby" acknowledged the Center's' work in her column, listing us as a resource for her readers.

While helping single parents secure support from their errant ex-spouses, I was often witness to the anger many divorced couples carry and soon became aware of how this anger often preempts and frustrates the resolution of legal issues. In my experience, I witnessed how the power of listening to another's "story" was often a major first step in helping them reach an agreement.

With specialty training from the Los Angeles County Bar Association Dispute Resolutions Services and Mosten Mediation Training Center. I started SettlementWorks in 1999. Along with Susan Daya Hamwi, Esq. I began to explore a new approach to legal conflicts. Using traditional mediation as a cornerstone, this evolving approach introduced and continues to offer an efficient, cost effective resolution of legal disputes while addressing and helping heal and complete the unresolved emotional issues of divorce. To that end, I studied with Katherine Woodward Thomas and became a Certified Conscious Coach in 2016.

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Greta is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice for over 25 years. She has a special ability to help people “say and hear the things that need to be said” that really helps clients resolve their conflicts. Greta’s warmth, wisdom and clarity and her expertise as a facilitator in Non-Violent Negotiation create a safe space for parties to open their hearts to healing and completion. The adage, “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure” as coined by Joseph Campbell is the philosophy underlying Greta’s work with relationships, stress, loss, depression, breakdown and disillusionment.

With Masters Degrees in Psychology and Theology, Greta uses a multi-disciplinary and common sense approach to helping couples who are in crisis and breakdown find new possibilities in their relationship, or come to a peaceful resolution. Greta has worked as Director of Clinical Training and as a Staff Therapist for five years treating the relational and biological aspect of dependency at Passages Treatment Center for addictive disorders in Malibu.

In addition to Greta’s service as a therapist/mediator with Settlement Works, in Marina del Rey, CA, she is co-founder of The Concordance Project, a new paradigm for communication within challenged families. She is a frequent guest speaker on a wide variety of relationship topics, and is an established teacher of Compassionate Communication.

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Since childhood, Susan Daya Hamwi has dreamed of building peace on earth. Putting her young heart into action, Susan became a lawyer and with inspiration from her seven-year-old son, Joey, used her law practice as a service that helps families peacefully heal conflict.

In 1991, Susan started her career as a lawyer in private practice, at which time she also served as the court-appointed attorney for the Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center in South Central Los Angeles. There, she represented minors in court proceedings while also working with families and liaison officers to create the best solution for those children in their family situation. She also handled numerous divorce, custody and dependency cases. She carried on this work in 2000, becoming a mentor to incarcerated youth at the California Youth Authority in Ventura, CA. In 2001, Susan received her Kundalini Yoga teacher's training certification. She serves as a volunteer for Yoga for Youth, a non-profit organization that teaches Yoga and Meditation to pregnant teenage mothers and to minors in youth detention facilities. Susan also teaches children's yoga.

Susan holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Loyola Law School and a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1989 and completed the LA County Bar Association's mediation training program in 2001.

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