I feel fortunate. I’ve never (so far) lived in a country ravaged by war, and I can honestly say I hope I never do.

That feeling of gratitude was magnified recently, when I talked with an acquaintance who was raised in Kuwait and was living there during the Gulf War. Maybe I was too young to notice the reality (I was about 16 at the time), but I thought the Gulf War was a pretty open-and-shut case with few casualties.

Apparently, I was wrong.…

Rory McIlroy is the #1 golf player in the world.

But he has decided to skip two golf tournaments in next couple of weeks. Why? Injury? Family reasons?

Nope … it’s because he is preparing for a trial.

That, in a nutshell, is the price of conflict that escalates to litigation.

In the spring of 2013, Rory left Horizon Sports Management, about six months after signing a contract with Nike, which is reported to be a 9-figure endorsement…

I’ve always been a big fan of scheduling things. I’m even one of the few people left who use an actual paper calendar to schedule things–mostly because I’m addicted to turning a page and seeing all my “to-do’s” written down.

So, it’s probably in my nature to bring the idea of scheduling into my work. In fact, for clients dealing with grief, I often recommend they “schedule” their grief, so they can still function in daily life. For so many, grief strikes at…

I actually had a different topic in mind for today’s post, but that one will have to wait. Yesterday, I saw an article in the paper about a survey published by Highlights magazine called “The State of the Kid” and I just had to write about it.

If you are the parent of a child between the ages of 6 and 12 (or younger), you need to read the…

It’s the third week in October, and that means one thing: It’s Conflict Resolution Day!

According to Mediate.com, The Association for Conflict Resolution came up with the idea in 2005, and here’s what the day is all about:

• Promote awareness of mediation, arbitration, conciliation and other creative, peaceful means of resolving…

Several months ago, I had the difficult task of needing to give someone bad news. She didn’t live in my area, so I had to do it by phone.

I looked up her phone number and wrote it on a sticky note. And then I attached it to the console of my car and drove around with it for several weeks!!! Even on a vacation. It fell down so many times and I dutifully stuck it back on … knowing that sooner or later, I needed to pick up that phone.

Fortunately, the…

I had a new experience the other day–and, it wasn’t pleasant. I actually had an apology ungraciously  rejected…and it felt really bad. Really bad.I’ll give you a little backstory–my five year-old son and a friend from class have what you would call a “volatile relationship.” What I mean by this is that one provokes the other, they scuffle a lot, then make up. Scuffle again. Compete for Alpha Male. You know the drill.

Well, it happened again in class. This…

 was on vacation last week and had more time to watch the news than usual. Gosh, it’s so hard to watch the news sometimes. So much strife going on in the world.

So, I thought it was time to write about a wonderful project that works on planting ‘seeds of peace.’

Seeds of…

It’s funny–for the better part of my mediation training, I’ve had discussions with fellow mediators about how few people choose mediation, especially during divorce. And, what a shame that more people don’t know about the benefits of divorce mediation–or even collaborative divorce.

However, the word is out–at least in our office. In my six months at this private practice, every couple that has considered divorce has decided to do so OUT of the court system! To be sure, some couples…