Using ideas from a workshop on difficult conversations in the workplace, I wanted to share some ideas about difficult conversations in family mediation.  First step is preparation and in this podcast, I will share some ideas about how to prepare. Podcast is also available on Youtube on the Map the Maze channel if you feel like video!

Books referred to:

Getting More - Stuart Diamond

Difficult Conversations - Stone, Patton and Heen

Nothing in this podcast is intended to be legal , financial or mental health advice.  You should always consult with a professional regarding your personal situation.

This is the last in the opportunity series.  What opportunities for better conflict management exist within family mediation? How can participating in family mediation lead to better conversations and discussions outside mediation?

Listen in or watch the Map the Maze podcast channel.

Nothing in this podcast, is intended to be legal, financial or mental health advice. You should always consult a professional regarding your personal circumstances.

Next in the Opportunity series, a look at how mediation can empower people in respect of finances. 

Often people express fears about their finances:

Mediation helps address these concerns. In mediation, people are encouraged to feel empowered around finances.  This can mean, asking questions, understanding assets / liabilities of the family, maybe for the first time.  Going froward, people often feel a sense of relief around regaining financial independence.  People may not have the resources they hoped for, but lots of parties feel empowered as they can make their own decisions going forward.

Nothing in this podcast is intended to be financial, legal or mental health advice.  You should always consult a professional for advice in relation to your circumstances.

Continuing the series about the opportunities in mediation, today I wanted to share ideas about how mediation can help parents with co-parenting.  As the adult relationship is coming to an end, the co-parenting relationship continues.  Mediation gives parents a space and structure to:

Isolina Ricci - Mom's House, Dad's House

Robert Emery - Two Homes, One Childhood

Nothing in this podcast is intended to be financial, legal or mental health advice.  You should always consult a professional for advice in relation to your circumstances.

We often focus solely on the negative aspects of separation and divorce.  The impact of all the losses experienced by people in separation and divorce cannot be minimised, but it is not the whole story.  Over the next few weeks, I want to share some ideas with you about the opportunities, the new beginnings that people can experience.

Nothing in this podcast is intended to be financial, legal or mental health advice.  You should always consult a professional for advice in relation to your circumstances.

Final part in this series - focuses on communication.  Listen in to learn about what we teach mediators about listening, acknowledging, reframing and summarising.

In the second part, I wanted to share some of the ideas that we use to train family mediators in respect of negotiation. We have all been at the market and done the salami slice school of negotiation, where one person starts high and the other starts low, and then through incremental offers, try and close the gap. Modern mediation is based on a different theory of negotiation, interest-based or principled negotiation. How is this different from what we do in the market? listen in to find out...

In the next three episodes I wanted to share with you how we train family mediators. This week looks at the underlying philosophy and how family mediators try to work in children's best interests.  Next week, I start looking at some of the skills.

Having looked at a few other ways to think about the stages of divorce and separation, today I wanted to share how I see the different stages. This can be a helpful way of seeing when people may work with a mediator and some of the challenges about working with a mediator at the different stages. Understanding what stage you are at can help to prepare for the mediation and also to understand where the other person may be in the transition.

Today I'm sharing Kessler's 7 stages of divorce.  Why is it helpful to think about the stage of divorce you may be experiencing?  There are a few reasons why I think it's helpful:

On one level understanding more about the stage you are facing, can help put your experience in perspective.  It can also give you insight into your former partner and the stage they are in.  People rarely experience all of these stages at the same time / duration.