The Mediator's Handbook
Skills and Strategies for Practitioners
By: Ruth Charlton, Micheline Dewdney
Experienced mediators take you step-by-step through the mediation process, offering strategies to apply in particular contexts and valuable tips to help develop and enhance skills. This highly practical approach reflects in checklists, comments and casenotes throughout including shuttle negotiation and mediation.
AI Overview
Overview of "The Mediator's Handbook"
Authors: The Mediator's Handbook is written by Ruth Charlton and Micheline Dewdney.
Key Themes:
- Conflict Resolution: The book focuses on providing a time-tested, step-by-step model for helping people work through conflict.
- Mediation Process: It outlines the process from first contact through reaching a lasting resolution, emphasizing the importance of creating a safe and respectful environment for dialogue.
- Mediator's Role: The handbook emphasizes the mediator's neutrality and the need for active listening, empathy, and skill in managing emotions and power imbalances.
- Supporting Participants: It highlights techniques for supporting participants, including active listening, reflective statements, normalizing emotions, and reframing negative statements into neutral language.
- Ethical Standards: Maintaining confidentiality and adhering to ethical standards are also crucial aspects discussed in the book.
Plot Summary: The Mediator's Handbook is structured to guide both new and experienced mediators through the mediation process. It begins with a new chapter on assessing conflict and bringing parties to the table. The first section explains the process step-by-step, covering opening conversations, exploring the situation, finding resolution, and testing agreements.
The "Toolbox" section details the concepts and skills a mediator needs, including understanding the conflict, supporting the people involved, facilitating the process, and guiding decision-making. The book emphasizes practical application and underlying principles that help mediators make wise choices.
Critical Reception: While specific reviews are not provided in the search results, the book is widely regarded as a valuable resource in the field of mediation. It has been a popular course textbook for high schools, universities, and training programs, and is also a desk reference for professionals. The revised and expanded fourth edition incorporates recent practice and thinking, making it an adaptable and accessible manual for mediators.
Additional Resources:
- Summary and Quotes: Available on SoBrief, which also provides an option to download the book in EPUB format for e-readers.
- Publisher Information: New Society Publishers released the book in 2012, indicating its long-standing relevance in the field of mediation.
- Educational Use: The Mediator's Handbook is widely used in educational settings, including high schools and universities, making it a foundational text in conflict resolution courses.
Overall, "The Mediator's Handbook" by Ruth Charlton and Micheline Dewdney is a comprehensive guide that provides practical tools and principles for effective conflict resolution through mediation. Its emphasis on creating a safe dialogue environment and its adaptable structure make it a valuable resource for both new and experienced mediators.