It's so interesting. When I start a mediation, I often ask parties to visualize the future - asking them to think beyond their conflict and imagine what things could be like.

They tell me wonderful things like how it would feel to get beyond where they are, what they want for their children, how they want to save money by avoiding long, drawn out legal battles and much more.

Then, we start the mediation and I am sometimes amazed at how quickly they forget what they have said.…

I just read a really interesting article about mediation "styles." You know the ones: facilitative, evaluative, and transformative.

Me? I was trained in facilitative mediation, but have always wondered about the others because, frankly, I've never been one to stick to one "theory" or "style." I prefer to mix-and-match theories, in mediation and in therapy--but, I always worry doing so will make me appear sloppy and incompetent.…

I don't get to watch the news much anymore ... but when I saw this story I just had to write about it.

The Buddy Bench is a wonderful program that schools all across the country are embracing and kids are part of the driving force in making it happen.

How does it work?

When a child feels alone or excluded…

Having elementary-school-aged children is a very precarious time for a marriage--or so I learned during graduate school. I remember having an infant at the time and wondering--will my husband and I break-up when they hit school-age?

Not sure if the book I read gave an in-depth reason for this trend, but it may have something to do with the rigors of child-rearing...or maybe the Seven-Year-Itch that many couples encounter, which happens to coincide with this time in many couples'…

Have you ever felt like you have been dragged into a dispute??

I don't know about you, but I have.

Before you can blink, your muscles are starting to tense and your heart beats faster. Your lizard brain is starting to engage and the little hairs on the back of your neck are starting to bristle. You're in ... and ready to 'get it on.'

Did you ever think that you…

It's been a pretty stressful week in our home. My husband, who started a new job about a year ago, is under a tremendous amount of pressure at work--trying to please his boss. Now, my husband would be classified as a people-pleaser and very, very easy to please. I'm being serious when I tell you that all he asked for when he turned 48 this past January was a bag of pretzels and some Cokes (and that's what he got).…

I don't know about you ... when I hear the word DEFENSE, I think of a football fan holding up a big letter "D" and a fence and shouting the word so loudly that it resonates above everyone else doing the same thing.

Little did I realize that I could also be thinking about that word in the context of every day conflict.

I had my observer hat on this past week during a…