Arizona Attorney - February 2015

the channel of communication focused and directed. Facial expressions reflect people’s emotions and attitudes and provide the mediator with the nonverbal feedback needed to provide direction or to redirect the conversation.

As human beings, we develop certain likes and dislikes and we all have biases of one kind or another. In self-reflection, the mediator has to recognize what existing biases they have regarding people or situations. During mediation, these biases must be overcome so that the mediator can remain neutral. Allowing biases to enter the mediation process is destructive because one party may justifiably feel that the mediator has transitioned from the role of mediator to that of an advocate.

Dynamics of Mediation
as a Healing Art

While the focus of the legal system is to
provide a legal outcome based on the facts
and the law, the mediation system recog-
nizes that in many instances the parties will,
by necessity, continue to be in contact with
ment then can be applied to other conflict
situations in which they may find them-
selves in the future.

Often in mediation, the conflict before the mediators is only the continuation of a deeper underlying issue in need of resolution. For example, consider a neighbor dispute where one neighbor is complaining of the overhanging branches of the neighbor’s trees into his or her yard. During this mediation one party says, “Well, that never seemed to be an issue with you before, so why is it an issue now?” Although there may be valid reasons why the branches have now become a problem, the trained mediator will explore the deeper underlying sub-issue that may exist. For example, it might simply be that the neighbor’s feelings were

During mediation, biases

must be overcome so that the mediator can remain neutral.

each other long after mediation. For example, in a neighbor dispute, the parties leave mediation but return to their homes next door to each other; employer–employee disputes require the employee and employer to continue performance in their work environment; and family disputes require continuation of the family relationship.

Skill development during the resolution process will empower the disputants to improve their own conflict-resolution skills. During the process the disputants are directed to focus on how to listen, how to communicate, how to evaluate, how to compromise, and how to take responsibility and control of their own dispute and to seek alternatives to resolutions that they can live with. This personal skill develop-