Beyond active to perceptive listening.
As a consequence of my engagement with a business coach, I have joined a Business Book Club. To begin with I wondered why someone as time poor as me would even consider this, but I have to admit that I have read some absolutely fantastic books that I would never otherwise have picked up, and…
Katherine Johnson-Grief and loss in mediation
This week I travelled to Sydney to attend a workshop presented by Katherine Johnson on “The Impact of Grief and Loss on The Effectiveness of Mediation Outcomes.” Katherine is a psychologist and lawyer and has recently completed her Phd on this topic. Her work is the culmination of 40 years work as a counselor and…
David Mandel-a fresh approach to family violence
I was very fortunate recently to hear David Mandel present about family violence. David is a practitioner, educator and researcher from the USA who has spent his career developing a new way of approaching the issue of family violence. He has highlighted a number of dubious assumptions that have underpinned our attitude to identifying and…
Keeping clients from being stuck in the past
When moving clients from a “stuck” position, I have found that some of the hardest things are to facilitate a sense of progress, and to prevent the client from slipping back into that stuck position between sessions or even in the one conversation. The Solution Focus approach provides some very useful tools to assist with…
Encouraging future focus and a solutions outlook
I am often confronted by clients who are stuck in the awful things that have happened to them in the past, and unable to move beyond these to think of what needs to happen to get to a better future. They can be overwhelmed by the problem, and my skills as a dispute resolver are…
Turning Problem talk into Solutions talk
As professionals working with family disputes most of our influence arises from the conversations that we have with our clients. The way we conduct these conversations has a major impact on the outcome of our work. We aim to engage in skilled communications that result in constructive conversations that enable some progress in achieving what…
Priming for best results in Dispute Resolution
I have recently come across the notion of “priming” clients for dispute resolution. We all have our own style, our own way of approaching conflict and working with others to assist them to resolve their disputes. As we gain experience and confidence, we develop a set of strategies in our tool box, and an innate…
Making 2017 Great
It was with a great sigh of relief that Christmas Day arrived and with it the summer holidays. The chaos, excitement and pressure of the festive season leaves in its wake the need for rest, revitalization and refocus for 2017. I enjoyed the change of pace, and routine. My favourite day was one when I…
The Odd Couple-more than just a blast from the past!
I was recently lucky enough to see the Melbourne Theatre Company production of The Odd Couple. This harkened back to when I was growing up and watching the TV series based on this play. The story is about best friends Oscar and Flex. They have a long term friendship that appears to be based on…
Insights from neuroscience for changing behaviour
Many of those involved in family disputes acknowledge the need for situations to be handled differently. This often requires those involved to act or react differently. Interventions to assist with such change, benefit from current knowledge acquired from neuroscience regarding the workings of the brain. This promotes an understanding of the impact of what is…