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Welcome
to the website of
E ~merging
Beyond
Mediation Services
Untangling
the knots of conflict
and re-weaving them into knots of understanding
and/or trust
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Why
Mediation
The knots
metaphor (on the Home page)
describes 
in a simple way
how the threads of interpersonal relationships can become
so tangled that it seems impossible to continue to interact
with each other with any degree of goodwill or respect. Especially
in small communities
whether they be extended families, non-profit social-concerns
groups, or other kinds of small organizations
such interpersonal conflict-knots can become
particularly difficult to resolve.First
of all
because such groups have a very limited number of members,
which are intimately related (work-wise
or as a family)
it is almost impossible to avoid the conflict unless
at least one party becomes estranged from the family/leaves
the group. Secondly
whether
a family or social-concerns group
one's deepest passions (and often, needs)
tend to be involved.The
end result of unresolved conflict-knots is that
both the family or group (as well as
the individuals) suffer
and in a way, that can't simply be emotionally, or even
functionally, ignored.
Our culture
does not generally support mediation as a means of resolving
conflict.Rather,
an irresolvable dispute is sent to litigation (if
involving legal issues); or fixed by someone
higher up in the community (organizational
director, or perhaps the patriarch/matriarch of the
family).Such
fixes rarely solve the situation in any more than a
temporary way, as they tend to rely on either an unsatisfactory
compromise or one party clearly winning while the other
equally loses.When
one's life-passions (as in the case of
social-concerns groups) or emotional/support
needs (as within families) are
at issue, the community itself begins to break down:
and it becomes harder to it to serve the needs of all
of its members
or as in the case of social-concerns groups, those that
it intends to serve.In
the worst case scenario, the unfortunate end result
can be a total degeneration of the organization or support
of the family system.
Mediation
offers a means by which not only the specific conflict
can be resolved, but tends to strengthen the trust-knots
between the parties (and even within
the community as a whole).The
very process of creating a safe environment to explore
the values/beliefs/passions/etc. and threads
that are woven into the dispute tends to develop not
only deeper understanding, empathy and respect, but
(re) dis~cover and em~power the
common goals or passions that initially lead to the
relationship.
Everyone in the family or organization benefits from
this re-weaving of the threads
in terms of the cohesion of the family/group as a whole,
as well as encouraging each of its members to also consider
mediation (whether formal or informal)
as an appropriate way to resolve their own future conflict-knots.
Finally,
mediation is less expensive than going through the court
system and definitely much quicker
but most importantly, tends to result in the parties
building a more productive relationship for the future,
or at least attaining some kind of personally-satisfactory
closure.
Third Party Intervention
Mediation
is sometimes referred to as 'third party intervention'.The
word, intervention, itself has become rather
ambiguous
even negative
in our culture.Wars,
and even first-strike attacks, have been concealed by
the term "intervention".Particularly
in the 60s/70s, the term often referred to kidnapping
a member of a cult and de-programming them
frequently against their will.The
term is now more commonly used in relation to addiction
problems
where there is an intervention by a third party (an
individual or collective of them), forcing the
individual to address the issues of their addiction
and to get treatment.
In Mediation,
the term 'third-party intervention' is used in a much
more neutral sense.The
Mediator acts as a third, unbiased party, which the
disputing parties choose to have intervene in order
to facilitate them to be able to move beyond the conflict-knot.At
times, the Mediator does literally intervene
in order to re-direct the conversation into a more useful
direction, suggest ways to un-tangle the knots,
ensure equality between the parties have, and otherwise
move the discussion towards a 'win-win' solution.
Please
also check out Mediation Process for further information
on how a mediation session functions, and what to expect.
Mediation
The journey from
knots of conflict
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to
knots of understanding,
respect and/or trust
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Home
Why MediationMediation
Process - what to expect About
Pashta
Arrangements and Fees
Contact
vial email
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