About Us

The Mediation Partnership brings over 30 years of combined experience of
mediating various disputes throughout Scotland, and particularly in the North East.  They have mediated in a wide range of areas, including workplace, neighbour and community, victim/offender, sheriff court, family and legal complaints.  They bring a wealth of practical experience, along with a friendly and professional approach.

The partners are:

Linda Paterson M.A. PgDip (Adult Guidance)

Linda began mediating in 1997 when she was a founder member of the small team which established the Aberdeen Community Mediation Service.  She was a key player in establishing it as the most successful community service in Scotland.
During her time with the service she mediated hundreds of disputes, not just neighbour and community, but also victim/offender, family and workplace.  In 2008 she was a key member of the panel of mediators for the pilot Court Mediation scheme in Aberdeen, successfully mediating many of the disputes deferred from the Court, and also involved in the training of lawyer panel members.  Linda is a contract mediator for the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, mediating between lawyers and their clients. She has also delivered extensive training in conflict resolution and mediation skills to organisations in the public, voluntary and private sector, and is on the panel of trainers for Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce.

lindapaterson@mediationpartnership.co.uk

Aileen Riddell M.A.
 
Having gained an M.A. in Psychology at Aberdeen University, Aileen subsequently trained and worked as a counsellor for three years. She joined a local Mediation Service in 1999 and worked for the organisation for over five years in the areas of community, workplace and family mediation. This has given her extensive experience of mediation work in a wide range of settings, and often in difficult and highly complex cases. As Team Leader, Aileen had responsibility for service delivery, staff supervision and training, promotional and developmental work and gaining accreditation for the Service.  In 2005, Aileen set up The Mediation Partnership with her colleague, Linda Paterson.  Over the last 9 years she has delivered Open College Network and Scottish Mediation Network accredited training for mediators, courses in Mediation Skills and has mediated a multitude of workplace disputes. During 2008/9 Aileen ran the Court Mediation Pilot in Aberdeen and provided CPD training for the group of mediator-lawyers, who volunteered their time to the scheme. She was also a lay member for the Employment Tribunal Service for 7 years and mediates for the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

aileenriddell@mediationpartnership.co.uk

 

 

 

ASSOCIATES

Fiona O'Donnell

I have worked as a Mediator since 2004 and trained with CORE (Edinburgh) and CEDR (London).  My mediation practice is mainly in the areas of employment, workplace and complaints management. This usually involves helping individuals, teams and organisations to find constructive solutions for conflict and ways to achieve better workplace communication.

In 2008, I developed a model of early dispute resolution (edr), open to staff and students at the University of Dundee, to assist in the management and resolution of conflict.  Since then I have led the in-house edr team of mediators, as well as collaborative mediation initiatives. Formerly Director of Legal at the University, I am now an Honorary Fellow and Lead Mediator.

As an Associate of The Mediation Partnership, I regularly act as a consultant to advise on establishing in-house mediation schemes and review existing mediation operations, particularly in the higher education or public/third sector. 

As a solicitor, my work has covered employment law, including discrimination. I have also set up complaints handling, as well as discipline and fitness to practice processes in professional clinical areas.  I have held an Accredited Specialism in Commercial Mediation from the Law Society of Scotland since 2005.

Mediation, for me, is about giving space and support to individuals and teams to think through the issues they bring and initiate a dialogue, enabling them to gain a better understanding and come up with resolutions that work for them. It is also about engaging with others through training and awareness sessions to encourage wider national mediative practice in a variety of sectors.

 

 

Joy Wootten MSc MBA MAC

 

Joy has extensive experience as a trainer, facilitator, coach and also in training coaches in both higher education and retailing.

She undertook her mediation training with Aileen and Linda and established and coordinated the Internal Mediation Team within the University of Aberdeen for a number of years.

 

Joy has a particular interest in conflict coaching which is designed to support individuals and groups to establish appropriate strategies, skills and approaches to build the resilience to deal with unresolved conflict.

 

Conflict coaching is of particular value when mediation, which is usually the preferred approach in conflict situations, has not been accepted by all parties as a way forward.

 

Joy is an NLP practitioner and a member of the Association for Coaching.