[originally published on dialogicmediation.com]

A couple of weeks back, Dan Simon drew a comparison on his new transformative mediation blog between the thinking of Carl Rogers, the founder of humanistic psychology, and the premises and principles of transformative practice.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Image via Wikipedia)

Now, this week, he looks to the words of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and finds another parallel with our practice's objective of recognition or openness to the other.  This is of particular interest to me given my earlier post of February 7, Transformative Mediation Training and Spiritual Communities.  Dan quotes from the HHDL's Facebook page:

"The first beneficiary of compassion is always oneself. When compassion, or warmheartedness, arises in us and our focus shifts away from our own narrow self-interest, it is as if we open an inner door. It reduces fear, boosts confidence and brings us inner strength. By reducing distrust, it opens us
to others and brings us a sense of connection to others, and sense of purpose and meaning in life."

This is a perfect summation of what Baruch Bush, the co-author of the transformative framework, calls compassionate strength.  Briefly stated, the 'transformative' in transformative mediation is about supporting parties who wish to change their conflict interaction from negative to positive, or to one of compassionate strength, i.e., strength of self and openness to (or recognition of) the other.

Read Dan's entire post here.