Mediation Skills to Help Families Under Stress

Lynn Kaplan brings a myriad of life experiences to her role as Family Mediator and Divorce Doula. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Lynn always enjoyed challenging boundaries. She steeped herself in art and animals, nature – threads she has woven throughout her life. Her travels took her through art school, to a kibbutz in Israel and finally to Toronto. Here she developed a deep commitment to working with young people and their families, and helping them to discover their spiritual and emotional potential.

Her involvements have included opening a successful business, Whimz Live Animal Programs, which provides children and adults with a unique hands-on opportunity to learn about animals and their habitats; founding an arts-based Jewish Heritage Program; establishing and facilitating the Toronto branch of the Mother’s Circle, which provides support to interfaith families; and serving as an ongoing foster parent for Jewish Family and Child Services. She is also mother to a grown daughter and a young son.

Lynn brings to the table an open, warm, direct style, and a nonjudgmental approach. In her own life, she has worked at turning obstacle into opportunity, and she motivates her mediation clients to do the same.

Dave Aschaiek is the owner of High5Financial, serving the Greater Toronto Area. He likes to think of this business as the perfect crossroads of his education, experience and personality. In addition to a certificate in dispute resolution, where he learned mediation and negotiation skills, he currently is pursuing a financial planning designation. Combining this with over ten years of corporate finance experience providing executive decision support on multi-million dollar deals, and with a tendency towards being financially conservative, Dave is in the best position to help people in need.