Mediation focusses on interests and needs, not ‘positions’ or legal rights and obligations. Positions tend to clash, but there is almost always an overlap of common ‘interests’ in a conflict.

Each party feels ‘right’ and it is our job to help them open their mind to where an acceptable agreement point might be. Facilitation, in essence, means to make something easier.

To help participants find possible solutions, we ask:

• what brought them to mediation?
• how has the situation has impacted them?
• what is the current situation?
• what is important about the future?

We listen respectfully, think with compassion, speak optimistically, facilitate diligently and conclude sincerely.

The difference with mediation is that we want the parties to find options for negotiation, not go back and forth with offers as might happen in traditional legal settlement negotiations.

At the end of the mediation, participants independently and collectively decide whether they can reach agreement based on what they each consider appropriate, so that in the future they can look back knowing the process was fair and the terms have longevity.