Maryana Kanda is the owner of Family and Divorce Mediation Services of New Jersey. Mrs. Kanda was awarded a Master’s Degree in 1995 from Yeshiva University School of Social Work, and had dedicated herself exclusively to the field of helping people.She began her career advocating on behalf of special needs clients at the Mental Health Center in Englewood, New JerseySoon after, she was offered a social work position with Family Services of Bergen County, NJ.

At this time she became involved with Russian-speaking clients who were seeking psychological help. A lot of their problems were acute reactions to the process of immigration. Many families could not endure the stress of immigration and fell apart. She found herself dealing with a lot of such families, helping them through the divorce process, performing translations of various legal documents, writing letters to attorneys on their behalf, and going to court as a translator.

She was spending a lot of her own time doing this on top of her daily responsibilities as a therapist. She learned at that time that the divorce process is one of the most painful and heartless procedures, which is especially hard on children. While working at the Family Services of Bergen County, NJ Mrs. Kanda has received numerous awards in recognition of her commitment and dedication to the field of Social Work.

In April 2002, Maryana received her mediation training though the Institute for Dispute Resolution, NJ. She graduated from this Institute and enrolled in internship for mediators at the same institute. However, as this field was not completely new to her, she started doing family mediation while in training. She is now a fully Accredited Professional Mediator though the New Jersey Association for Professional Mediators (NJAPM). She continues to participate in advanced trainings and professional retreats through NJAPM and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education.