Last week, I arrived at a mediation conference where I was on a panel to be in dialogue with a judge, comparing court annexed mediation with our approach.  I was taken aback by the setting of the law school classroom,  MORE »

As everyone was preparing to leave after having reached an agreement at a recent mediation, one of the attorneys said to me that she always liked to be pleasantly surprised when she didn’t think an agreement was possible. Since then,  MORE »

I was struck by a moment that happened in a fishbowl exercise in a recent Collaborative training. The role-play was of a first joint meeting in which the parties were discussing the process and deciding whether to commit to it.   MORE »

It is helpful for us as people working to support others in dealing with conflict, to understand our own experience with conflict from the outside as well as the inside. In other words, our experience of conflict as an observer  MORE »

In the last three and one-half decades of working primarily as a mediator, it has come as an extraordinary revelation to discover that an understanding of my personal reactions to the people in conflict I am trying to help is  MORE »

Many see a movement in the world toward greater empathy and understanding. We agree and view mediation as part of the evolution for humankind. Much has been written about this movement of humanity toward greater compassion; and while it is  MORE »

I just finished a two day training led by Gabor Mate, a Canadian doctor who spent many years treating addicts and has written and spoken extensively about the connection between our emotions, physiology, relationships, and emotional and physical health.  One  MORE »