Blog
Mediation Training Methods: Giving You the Pencil
Tomorrow would have been my father’s ninety-seventh birthday. He was born on February 25, 1929. My mother was born on March 1, 1935, and she would have turned ninety-one this Sunday. Their birthdays always came close together. My parents met as students at the...
Styles of Mediation Explained: Transformative, Facilitative, Informative, and Evaluative
People talk about mediation as if it is one uniform process. It is not. In practice, there are different styles of mediation, each with a different level of structure and mediator involvement. If you are stepping into mediation work, or trying to decide what kind of...
Power Imbalance in Divorce Mediation: How Mediators Level the Playing Field
I have lost count of how many times someone has said this in an intake call: “My spouse is going to run me over in mediation.” Sometimes it is about money. One person has always handled it, and the other feels exposed. In other situations, it is communication. One...
Emotional Drivers in Divorce: Fear, Uncertainty & Trust
People come into mediation thinking the fight is about money, custody, or who said what last Tuesday, yet that assumption is usually incomplete. The arguments sound practical enough: who keeps the house, how parenting time is divided, the level of child support, or...
Working With Difficult People in Divorce Mediation
A few years back I had a mediation that started falling apart before anyone sat down. It was a clear example of what working with difficult people in divorce mediation can look like when patterns clash early. The wife walked in angry, moving fast, already talking. The...
Divorce Mediation Process: How Professionals Keep Conversations on Track
Why the Divorce Mediation Process Matters If you work in divorce, you probably know your stuff. Lawyers know the law. Therapists understand the emotional ups and downs. Financial professionals can analyze the numbers and see the long-term picture. Most professionals...