MEDIATING IN ANGER
If you are about to participate in mediation and your conflict has a difficult history that may spark angry exchanges, here are some helpful tips.
- Most conflicts arise in the course of business, property, domestic or estate relationships.
- The multi-stage process that mediators follow will quickly alert them to any anger issues that are a by-product of of the parties’ history.
- One of the keys to managing the tendency to blame and respond in anger are the behavioural ‘ground rules’ that mediators ask parties to accept at the outset of any mediation.
- It is also the duty of mediators to keep an eye out for any obvious or veiled threats that might be used to pressure a party to settle. Settlement must always be voluntary. And if a party appears to be threatened, the mediator’s duty is to end the mediation in order to avoid victimization.
