Arizona Attorney - February 2015

“healers of human conflict,” 4 they must create a neutral space where the disputants feel safe to acknowledge their conflict.

Prerequisites of a
Successful Mediation

Empowering the parties to take control of the dispute and to resolve their differences in a collaborative way generates the success of facilitative mediation. This requires that mediators must possess skills beyond just learning the procedural aspects of mediation. The success of the mediation is dependent on recognition of attributes, attitudes and underlying biases of both the mediators and of the parties and on knowledge of how to overcome those things that create roadblocks to resolution.

Initially, disputants arrive at the mediation table with an already-established emotional feeling about the situation and the

other party. They may be angry, hurt, disappointed, upset or even apathetic. Each of these underlying emotions generates a certain type of response by the disputant based on their individual personality traits. The responses may be impulsive, critical, manipulative or controlling. This challenges the mediator to recognize the dynamics of the underlying communication between the disputants, both verbal and nonverbal, and to use effective strategies to get the parties inspired and engaged in their self-resolu-tion process while diverting the destructive behaviors that are unproductive.

In everyday life, we: ■ routinely come into contact with peo-
ple who believe that something is true
even when it is not; ■ recognize that some people simply do
not want to face the facts because they
think they are right and the other per-
son is wrong; ■ see people who are in denial and do
not believe they have done anything
wrong or caused someone harm; ■ see people who avoid a situation
because it is simply too painful for
them to face; and ■ hear people who blame other people
for their actions.

In everyday life, we can choose to ignore these types of attitudes. In mediation, however, the mediator must deal with these underlying existing attitudes. The successful mediator is adept at establishing rapport between the parties and keeping the communication going in an open and engaging manner. The mediator must set acceptable boundaries and keep the balance of power in check. Recognizing that each small compromise is a resolution, the mediator focuses the parties’ attention to that resolution as commendable and helps build continuous trust in the process that an ultimate resolution to the problem is attainable.

The trained mediator is attuned to the parties’ verbal communication and is assessing the tone, pitch, volume, speed and intensity of the disputant’s spoken word. The mediator is also in tune to the nonverbal communication that is being generated by the parties. Maintaining eye contact keeps

Mediation as a Healing Art

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