As I talk to people I am sensing that there is often a negative connotation attached to the concept of mediation. I believe this stems from its association with adversarial legal processes or perhaps poorly managed mediations conducted by well intentioned, inexperienced or untrained ‘mediators’. Recently I was doing a presentation about mediation where a participant spoke about people being scared of entering into mediation, so much so, that he called it “The M Word!”

This led me to thinking about how mediation is perceived and what we need to to to shift that into a more helpful space. Too often we hear that Party A is keen to mediate, but that Party B is not interested or totally against it.

I sense that part of the strategy to reposition people’s understanding, is to talk about what mediation does, instead of using its name/label. Though mediation, we help people clearly identify their needs and work with them so that they can find ways that their needs can be met without detriment to the other party. Using a facilitative approach that drives self-determination puts the power to resolve conflict in their hands. If they truly understand this, this can be exciting!

I am a nationally accredited mediator who can certainly help parties to reach sustainable and effective agreements. Contact me if you would like to know more about how I can help.