John Hoelle

While many people have expressed surprise that I do this work every day, I am honored to serve people going through one of the most difficult transitions in life.

As a father, I’m driven to help parents create a stable home life for children, under any circumstance. Although I don’t come from a family of divorce, I am myself in a second marriage, and I have witnessed in those close to me how wounds can last a lifetime when a child experiences traumatizing divorce.

I began my career as a documentary film editor, where I learned the power of persuasive storytelling and honed my skills at transforming moving pictures into meaningful narrative. When later called to put my analytical strengths to use as a legal practitioner, I found it natural to use life’s raw material to persuade a different audience (judges) with clear and compelling arguments.

My role as a Conscious Family mediator finally brought together for me a thrilling mix of challenges: the intellectual contest of law practice, the creative puzzle of developing workable family arrangements, and the intuitive work of facilitating dialogue and healing rifts.

I am trained in the the Collaborative Law model, and have practiced exclusively in the area of family law in Colorado since joining the bar: first as a judicial clerk for several judges at the Boulder District Court, then as an associate for an attorney-mediator and former judge. I am an alumnus of the University of Colorado Law School (Law Review); the National Institute of Trial Advocacy; the Colorado Bar Association 40-hour mediation training and Advanced Mediation Training; and the Colorado Collaborative Divorce Professionals Level I Collaborative Law training. I volunteer regularly for the Boulder County "Ask-an-Attorney" program, the Denver Bar Association’s Metro Volunteer Lawyers clinic, and the Boulder County Legal Services pro se divorce clinic.

In order to bring effective family law mediation service to a wider demographic, I mentor and supervise non-lawyer mediators through my law firm.

For over a decade I have participated in numerous healing processes and facilitated the negotiation and resolution of conflicts in my intentional living co-housing community, and am available to mediate difficult conversations between community members or that leadership may be facing in other communities.

To stay centered, I pursue a personal practice of vedic meditation and yoga, and perform professionally as a musician.