When John Hoelle and Peter Fabish first met in 2014, they recognized a shared vision – one that would transform how families navigate divorce and relationship transitions. Starting from a tiny coworking space with just two desks, Conscious Family was born with a mission to more effectively support divorcing spouses through mindful courtroom advocacy and collaborative divorce processes.

Our journey has been marked by continuous evolution and growth. From our early days of offering attorney-assisted collaborative divorce and fine-tuning our attorney-led collaborative mediation process, we expanded thoughtfully, bringing on talented legal professionals like Amy Stengel and Janette Jordan. In 2017, Peter and John co-authored a chapter presenting our particular form of collaborative mediation, for Amazon bestseller The Collaborative Divorce Advantage. By 2019, Peter and John stopped taking on litigation clients, and in 2021 we made the difficult decision to transition as a firm completely away from courtroom work, recognizing that this would be most supportive to our core focus of collaborative mediation. This required courage and faith that collaborative mediation represented the future of divorce practice, even though traditional legal advocacy is a tried and tested business model. In 2022 we began offering estate planning service to our clients who need to prepare or update wills or trusts, headed up by Janette Jordan who became our newest partner at the end of 2023. 

Today, our boutique firm stands strong with three partner attorney-mediators, one non-lawyer mediator, one senior paralegal, and two full-time administrative personnel, all focused as a team to support clients in collaborating, whether forming prenuptial agreements, estate plans, or navigating separation and divorce. One of our proudest achievements has been maintaining – and in some cases reducing – our divorce mediation costs, despite rising expenses Colorado and nationwide. The median cost for families with no children has decreased since 2020 from approximately $8,000 to $6,300, while the median for cases with minor children has held steady at approximately $9,400. This cost efficiency stems from our unwavering commitment to innovation and our willingness to embrace new technologies and training approaches. In the last 18 months we have managed to reduce costs even further for cases where it is appropriate to be led by a non-lawyer mediator, with lawyer support as needed. 

As we reflect on our first decade, we're reminded of the traditional 10-year anniversary gift of aluminum – a material that symbolizes both strength and flexibility. These qualities mirror our approach to family law: maintaining strong principles while remaining adaptable to each family's unique needs. 

Our name "Conscious" reflects more than just a brand – it embodies our core philosophy. To us, consciousness means being mindful about our operations, accountable for our impact, and continuously improving our processes. In addition, we are grateful to serve and work with so many mindful couples who demonstrate remarkable and inspiring presence with each other during challenging transitions. Their courage and resilience continue to teach us the true meaning of consciousness in action.

As we look toward the future, we remain committed to our founding principles of efficiency, innovation, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. We're proud of the trust our clients have placed in us over the past decade, and we are excited about continuing to serve families with the same dedication to conscious, compassionate support that has defined our first ten years.