How do you manage discomfort?

It is very easy to feel nervous and anxious about attending mediation.  Let’s face it you are here because there is a problem you cannot resolve without help!   Perhaps you each have an attorney adding to the expense and the intensity in many cases. It’s not the plan you scripted for yourself and your family.

When faced with nervous individuals, I often include as part of my opening a small statement:  “Sometimes we need to check in with how we are feeling.  By pressing pause, even for a few minutes to acknowledge our emotion, we can then move forward and make progress.”  Our emotion wants to protect us from going into uncharted waters.  Very few people like to engage in difficult conversations with family.  Mediation often marks the end of a big change in a relationship.  Rarely do we breeze through these conversations with ease.

A trained mediator will listen and help you manage your emotion.  I work to create a compassionate environment for the parties to work through their agenda, but also their emotions.  No one sets out to have conflict around once loving relationships.  Mediation is a platform for people to have a voice and work through difficult issues in a meaningful way.