Common Ground Foundation Mediation Training 2011

What's good? What's bad? More hopes and concerns? Let us know here, anonymously if you wish.

Your thoughts on co-mediation...

I had an email from one of our mediators today asking:

"Just wondering Common Ground has ever considered at times not using co-mediators but using very well experienced and confident mediators on their own? Am thinking about that possibility in light of the influx of cases CG is currently experiencing and the fact that in the professional world of mediation there is often only one mediator if I understand right. I imagine that would be a big shift for CG, but maybe it isn't necessarily a bad idea?"

What do you think? Mediators working alone would double our capability to take cases. How important is co-mediation to you? Is it an integral part of the process for you or is finding availability for two mediators a time-consuming task that doesn't add value? I have an open mind on this question and would very much appreciate your thoughts below.

A very different restorative approach...

As Laura gets stuck into the restorative justice project, I was amazed to hear this extraordinary story about an unusual method for approaching harm done and its consequences in a US prison. This is a wonderful programme - have a listen!

Next Ongoing Training: Working with Interpreters

This is a reminder that our next ongoing training session is on the evening of 22 June on the theme of 'Working with Interpreters' facilitated by Minaz - an invaluable evening for mediators working in a multilingual context. Further details will follow.

Please email Minaz to let us know whether you will be attending - hope to see you there!

Welcome: Laura Maxwell!

I am delighted to be able to announce that from 21 June 2011, Laura Maxwell, currently one of our volunteers, will be joining our staff team as Restorative Justice Coordinator.

Laura will work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and her email address (active immediately but will not be answered until she starts in June) is laura@findcommonground.org.uk. When she starts work she will be available on 020 7195 0213.

Minaz and I are thrilled that she will be joining the team and are looking forward to growing our restorative justice work with her.

Welcome Laura!

Veena Vasista on Compassion

Common Ground volunteer Veena Vasista is joining three others, on Tuesday the 17th May, in giving an inspirational talk on the theme of Compassion. She hopes you'll join her (even though it is in West London)...for details please see: All Ears

Edgar Cahn and Paying it Forward

On Tuesday I went to a talk given by Edgar Cahn, a US civil rights activist who set up timebanking. He had some interesting things to say about the limits of (and the damage done by) our ability to value things being limited only to money and the money-system.

There's lots that's exciting about timebanking (personally, I'd love to see it go even further than asking if we can find new ways of valuing exchange, to see if we couldn't get beyond the idea of exchange altogether) but what struck me most in what Edgar Cahn said was the story of setting up a law centre for people involved in civil rights often without any money to access legal services. At the time, he was lecturing in law so didn't need to make any money out of this offer of legal services. So when he'd finished representing someone he sent them a bill - not in money but in time, and he asked the person he'd been representing to 'pay forward' the time they'd been given by volunteering in their local community. One of the interesting things about this embryonic form of timebanking (as distinct from traditional money or letts schemes) is the way it values everyone's time equally - an hour of Edgar Khan, legal professor's 'expert' time is equal to an hour of time spent doing the shopping for an elderly neighbour.

The idea really took off and when his legal department was facing cuts, 20,000 people who had benefited directly or indirectly from his services or who had paid forward their time, wrote and told the politicians that if they lost the funding they would never have their votes again. They've not struggled with funding ever since.

So, inspired by Edgar Cahn, we're going to try an experiment at Common Ground. Parties often tell us how much they've appreciated the time they've been offered by our volunteers and if there's any way they can repay the gift they feel they've been given. Our database keeps track of the time that goes into each case, so when we close a case, we're going to let parties know how many hours have gone into their case and invite them to 'pay forward' the time that they've been offered. Not everyone will take up the offer but we're going to start collecting the stories of those who do. Who knows where this could lead?

You can watch the talk Edgar Cahn gave here. Let me know what you think below.

One small move for Minaz and Edward, one giant leap for Common Ground...

Hope you're enjoying the sun. As you know, we're in the process of expanding and, as those of you who've seen the room Minaz and I currently use, there's barely room to swing a gerbil, let alone two new members of the team!

So, we're moving to a different room in St Margaret's House. Our registered address and contact details will remain unchanged. Phone numbers and emails will also be unaffected (and new direct dials will be added and circulated in due course).

We will be moving office on Friday 3rd June 2011 and I am wondering if anyone would be free to help us? If you're able to lend a hand, please email me. It won't be a big job but a few extra pairs of hands will make a great difference. Thanks in anticipation!

Beyond interests and needs?

Interesting comparison between our current 'interest-based' approach to mediation and narrative mediation, which we're looking at for our next foundation course, details to follow. Take a look here. What do you think?

Internal Recruitment: Job Opportunities at Common Ground

I am really pleased to be able to announce that, due to securing a significant new contract, we are in a position to advertise two new posts. First and foremost, thank you to everyone for all your hard work in making Common Ground an excellent mediation organisation - it is because of the high standards and creativity you bring to our work that we have won this contract.

As is our policy, these posts are advertised internally initially - that means that the opportunity is available to current staff and volunteers in the first instance. If we are unable to fill these roles internally then we will advertise externally at a later date.

The two roles are Casework Administrator and Restorative Justice Coordinator. Both posts are part time and fixed term for one year. Job descriptions and person specifications are linked below.

If you would like to express an interest in applying, please get in touch with me to discuss the posts. If you are interested in applying for either, please send a CV and a covering letter showing how you meet the person specification to me by 5pm on Friday 15th April 2011. UPDATE: Please note that interviews are to be held on the evening of Tuesday 19th April 2011 - please confirm your availability when sending an application.

Download the job description for the Casework Administrator here
Download the person specification for the Casework Administrator here

Download the job description for the Restorative Justice Coordinator here
Download the person specification for the Restorative Justice Coordinator here

Forthcoming Ongoing Training: 16th April, 10am - 5pm

Ongoing Training: Emotional intelligence and mindfulness in mediation

This one-day OGT will focus on the vital roles that emotional intelligence and mindfulness can play in mediation. Through theoretical input, activities, meditations and role-play, we’ll explore how conflict can be viewed in terms of emotional imbalance: i.e. when negative emotions hold sway over positive emotions. For good relations to be restored between two or more people, there must be a shift from the negative to positive – so that all parties feel sufficiently motivated to want to make the relationship work. This is where mediation comes in: as a process that sets up the right conditions for this emotional shift to take place.

We’ll look at how the mediator needs to understand and work with emotions – both the parties’ and their own. Effective mediators can recognise and distinguish a wide range of emotions in other people (empathy) – and are not afraid of these emotions being displayed, even in extreme and challenging forms. They are alive to their own emotional landscape – what pushes their buttons and draws them away from being truly impartial. They can use this skill and knowledge to help parties who are stuck in destructive emotions.

Together this set of skills is known as ‘emotional intelligence’. Unlike standard IQ – an innate and generally unchanging cognitive ability – it’s something we can develop and cultivate over time. There are many techniques and practices we can use to do this. But all of them are fundamentally about developing awareness of ourselves and each other.

One of the most effective ways of developing this awareness is the practice of mindfulness – the art of becoming more alive, without judgment, to what is actually going on in the present moment, in our minds and bodies. Mindfulness is an ancient tradition, and is being adopted in modern times as a powerful tool for a wide range of applications in healthcare and in the business world. Its potential benefits to the world of mediation are vast.

Facilitated by Tim Segaller, a mediator and trainer with wide experience in community and workplace mediation. Tim also used to manage the Breathing Space health and wellbeing programme at the London Buddhist Centre, which provides Mindfulness Based Approaches for managing stress and helping to prevent relapse into depression and addiction.

How do you help generate options?

Following tonight's ongoing training - how do you generate options with parties? What did you see tonight in the role play that was helpful? What would you have done differently? How would you have continued with more time/in a real case?

A quick reminder - here's the ever useful PIN model, here are the listening prompts and tips, and here is the extract on helping parties get unstuck so they can better generate options. Over to you!

Generating options and helping parties get unstuck...

...is what tonight's OGT is all about. Some interesting, thought-provoking stuff in this article and the other resources and links on Beyond Intractability - a really useful site on conflict and conflict resolution.

How can supervision be most useful to you?

We've had a very low response to the request for people to sign up for supervision and I'm curious to work out why this should be.

• does supervision not feel useful?
• are emails not getting through?
• are we sending you too much information or too little?
• is there something else?
• would you like different supervisors?
• would you be more interested in group supervision?
  

I am bowled over every day the commitment of our volunteers - it's exciting and motivating for me to be working with you. As such, this really isn't a moan in disguise. How can we make it better for you? Leave a message below, at the blog or on facebook, or email me. Thank you!

deep:black training and Veena's report

News in of some interesting projects a couple of our mediators have been involved in. Veena Vastista has recently published a report which you can download here on the Runnymead Trust website and Petra Hilgars and Kweku Aacht's organisation deep:black are running the following event:

Godzilla in the Red Mist

1-day workshop about Understanding and Working with Anger

We all have very different experiences of our and others' anger: it might feel like an exploding volcano, a hissing pressure cooker, a frozen block of ice, a scary monster, or like a foggy red mist. Whatever it feels like: it's usually a very powerful experience that can unsettle us, can make us feel we are not ourselves and can create fear of ourselves or of other people.

This 1-day training course is offered by deep:black an organisation that specialises in using creative approaches to work with conflict and anger.

The course enables you

• to understand and appreciate your own and others' anger as a vital protective mechanism

• to explore ways of expressing it differently

Instead of anger becoming the overwhelming red mist where everything gets blurry or turns into a threatening Godzilla; it can be a power for growth and change.

Date: 12 March 2011

Time: 10.30 arrival for 11am start; finishing time at 5.30pm

Venue: People Show Studios, Pollard Row, Bethnal Green, London E2 6MB

Costs: £95 (including refreshments not lunch)

Our New Year Early Bird Booking Offer: If you confirm your place until 12 February you will get a £10 discount!

Booking: if you're interested please contact me so I can email you more details and the booking form.

petra hilgers

mobile: 07963 492 880

petra@deepblack.org.uk

kweku@deepblack.org.uk

katharine@deepblack.org.uk

www.deepblack.org.uk

deep:black a place where conflict is creative

deep:black london, 15 Linford House, Whiston Road, London E2 8SD, Tel: 020 7684 0988, company limited by guarantee registered in England & Wales no 07241106

New Year - new start

One of my new year's resolutions is to post here on a regular basis. I hope as such it will be a more interesting and useful resource and also will be a way to continue developing my thinking and reflection. 2010 was both an exciting and a tumultuous year for THMS: we developed and grew and became more effective and widespread, but we also saw our funding cut heavily and had to make painful decisions.

For both these reasons - because we are a very different organisation to that which began 2010, we have just rebranded. From 01 January, THMS is Common Ground - East London Mediation. We have a new website - take a look here.

This fresh start is underpinned by the incredibly hard work of our 60 wonderful volunteer mediators, our committed trustees and the dedicated support of those who signpost people to us and tell their stories of conflict transformation. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with THMS since 1996: welcome to Common Ground in 2011!

Roleplay Evenings

In addition to the reading group, when we were talking after the last Ongoing Training, there was interest in meeting regularly to practice joint mediation sessions. I've booked the Anson Room at St Margaret's House (our new offices - 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL) for the dates below. By each date is a link to two parties, from where you can download anonymised One Party Meeting reports, which is what we will be using for the roleplay. If you think this sort of session might be of interest, please pop the dates in your diary and let me know whether you'll be coming when I send round an email nearer to each session. Hope to see you there!

18.30 - 20.30, 7th September 2010
Party One | Party Two

18.30 - 20.30, 9th November 2010
Party One | Party Two

18.30 - 20.30, 11th January 2010
Party One | Party Two

18.30 - 20.30, 1st March 2011
Party One | Party Two

18.30 - 20.30, 3rd May 2011
Party One | Party Two

18.30 - 20.30, 5th July 2011
Party One | Party Two

Reading Group

At the end of the last Ongoing Training, a group of us were talking about what we would find helpful in supporting our development as mediators. One thing that people felt the need for more of was theoretical input. For some time I've wanted to get a reading group together and there has been some interest but it felt like we'd reached a tipping point of interest where there might be enough people to make it viable. And as we're moving offices and will be situated over quite a cosy cafe, it seemed like a good time to get something going! So, please pop these dates in your diary if you fancy getting involved with this. I'd be helpful if you could let me know that you're coming either by email or phone or by leaving a message here on the blog. As to what we read, I've chosen things that I've found interesting or provocative recently for the first three - after that, let me know what you'd like to read and we can chose the next few at the first session.

What is Narrative Mediation? 18.30, 5th October 2010
The Gallery Cafe, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL

In October we will be reading 'A Narrative Model of Mediation' by John Winslade and Gerald Monk from their book, Narrative Mediation. You can download a copy by clicking on the link or email me and I will send you a photocopy.

What does it mean to say we are 'impartial'? 18.30, 9th December 2010
The Gallery Cafe, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL

In December we will be reading 'Ten Beliefs That Get in Our Way' by Bernard S. Mayer from his book, Beyond Neutrality. You can download a copy by clicking on the link or email me and I will send you a photocopy.

Shame and Intractable Conflict 18.30, 1st February 2010
The Gallery Cafe, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL

In February we will be reading 'Emotion, alienation, and narratives: resolving intractable conflict' by Suzanne Retzinger and Thomas Scheff, which appeared in Mediation Quarterly. You can read it by clicking on the link or email me and I will send you a photocopy.

Hope you'll join us!

THMS is moving office

I wanted to let you know that at the end of the month we are moving offices. From 1st August our address will be 21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PL.

While it will be sad to leave The Toby Club after so many years, the council has plans for the space we're in and want to use it for other purposes. Our new office is part of St Margaret's House; a really thriving hub of local organisations, so joining this community should create all sorts of possibilities for collaboration. Minaz and I are really excited about the move and looking forward to the new opportunities it will bring.

We will be moving in the last week of July - details will be firmed up in the next few days. Minaz will be working remotely over this time and will be available on the same phone number and email throughout, so there should be no interruption to normal service!

More details will follow soon.

A couple of interesting bits and bobs...

A fascinating looking event at the Bishopsgate Institue on social housing in the east end - a talk by the appropriately named Graham Towers, an architect and planner "with many years experience of social housing" who has published an Introduction to Urban Housing Design: At Home in the City and Shelter is Not Enough: Transforming Multi-storey Housing. Thanks to Michele Lee for the tip-off. Details and booking here.

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Last week saw the publication of the Jackson Report, a review of civil litigation costs which has some interesting things to say about the potential role of mediation and its potential applications. If you're interested, please find a digested version of the sections on mediation here.

Sue Fox

Some really lovely messages have come through on hearing the news about Sue, who died at the weekend. Here are a few of them from people here at THMS and more widely who knew and valued her and her work.

Sue was one of life's rare and precious people . The world will be a dimmer place without her.

Catherine

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This is very sad. My last appraisal was with Sue and we did an effective mediation together, She will surely be missed.

Islam

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Sue was great to me when I joined THMS last year - very welcoming, friendly and helpful in a very practical way, taking me out with her on a mediation and sharing her knowledge and experience in a way that was always supportive, positive and encouraging. I know she has influenced the way that I approach a mediation and I'm sure that many others feel the same.

Helen

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I joined Tower Hamlet Mediation Services 2 years ago and Sue was one of the trainers on the induction training. Over 2008, I have interacted with her as she worked as the coordinator. She was kind, positive, understanding and helpful. I am very sorry to hear that she passed away.

Michelle

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Sue was a lovely person, kind, considerate and thoughtful. She will be sorely missed. Please pass on my blessings to her close family & friends.

Debbie

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Please pass on our condolences to Sue's family - She really will be missed.

Marcia
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I am so upset to hear this news about Sue. Can I just say that she was a good friend when I arrived in London and had the gift of making a stranger feel welcome. I enjoyed the time we spent working together and loved her to bits for her quirky sense of humour. Please pass on my condolences to her family. She will be sadly missed.

Dot

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As others have said, Sue was always very positive and generous in her manner and in her commitment to the work we all do. Please also pass our condolences to her family.

Alan

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I am so sorry to hear about Sue she epitomised all that was good about being a true Community Mediator. Sue always made us feel welcome whenever we visited THMS. I will miss our chats outside THMS building and hearing about the festivals she attended. Please pass on our condolences to her family and friends.

Dave

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I will remember Sue for her dedicated and empathetic approach in mediation work. Sue was a wonderful trainer on my Mediation Foundation as well as a warm and generous 'people person'. A great example to the service as both a mediator and Mediation Coordinator. No doubt she will be greatly missed!

Alessandra

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Thanks to her and THMS I learnt many things about mediation and about human kindness,

THANKS SUE!!!

Maria

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Sue, was a great inspiration to many

Esther

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I'm so sorry to hear the news about Sue's death. I remember her as a lively, genuine and warm-hearted person, and she will be much missed by a wide range of friends and contacts. Please pass on condolences and best wishes from all who knew her here at Conflict and Change.

Mike

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I am very sorry to hear the sad news; please pass on my condolences to Sue's family.

Corrine

The few times I've met her as a colleague from Hackney, as a volunteer with THMS and also as a local resident I was always inspired by her energy and initiative. My thoughts are with her family and friends and I wish them support and comfort in dealing with this.

Petra

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Values and our name...

I realise I've been banging on about both of these for a while and people are beginning to sign up for the group meeting in the new year to look at values which is a really good development in my view. As some of you know, for a while I've been trying to come up with a new name, too so was interested in this report from NFP synergy. It's called 'A strong charity brand comes from strong beliefs and values'. Take a look here.

(I realise many people, myself included, have an allergy to words like synergy and brand and while some of this is stating the bleeding obvious in management speak there's some nice stuff in there too).

Volunteer Appreciation Day - 5/12/09

A few photos from Saturday's Ongoing Training and Volunteer Appreciation Day.

We almost look convincing here as a Bollywood troupe, don't you think?

Lots of people expressed an interest in finding out more about the group and maybe signing up for some classes... Their website can be found here. Perhaps next year we'll have a whole team of shimmying mediators?!

Here are some new and experienced mediators really getting to groups with what our principles mean in practice.

We focussed on generating options and shared ideas about what techniques had worked in the past and what we could do to get unstuck when things got difficult.

It was a really good chance for new and older mediators to meet each other.

Helen Buxton from Peace Direct recommended their 'Practical Peace' newsletter which you can sign upto by putting your email into the box on the left-hand side.

If you were inspired by Abdul, there is more information about Truce 2020 here. Wasn't he amazing?

Finally, here is Jonathan receiving his certificate at the conclusion of the Foundation Mediation Course. 19 other new mediators have completed the course: Amanda, Amena, Claudia, Desmond, Edward, Emily, Farjana, Jane, Jonathan, Kerry, Lanre, Laura, Murray, Natalie, Olivia, Philippa, Reshma, Rose, Ruth and Sue.

Congratulations, thank you and welcome to all of them!

Power, authority, "empowerment", persuasion and coercion...

All big topics, enormously relevant to our work and our position between the local authority and the people of Tower Hamlets. Have been thinking about these topics a lot in preparation for this Saturday's Ongoing Training which will begin the work of clarifying our values and thinking about what assumptions about the world underpin our work. In a conversation with one of our new mediators I was reminded of the following passage. It won't be for everyone (and though there will be options of reading and theoretical reflection outside the session, the will be a practical affair) but it's a contrast that has stuck with me and I find very disturbing and thought-provoking when thinking about work such as ours which involves the shifting of perspectives and approaches.

"Instead of bringing freedom, the fall of the oppressive authority thus gives rise to new and more severe prohibitions. How are we to account for this paradox? Think of the situation known to most of us from our youth: the unfortunate child who, on Sunday afternoon, has to visit his grandmother instead of being allowed to play with friends. The old-fashioned authoritarian father's message to the reluctant boy would have been: "I don't care how you feel. Just do your duty, go to grandmother and behave there properly!" In this case, the child's predicament is not bad at all: although forced to do something he clearly doesn't want to, he will retain his inner freedom and the ability to (later) rebel against the paternal authority. Much more tricky would have been the message of a "postmodern" non-authoritarian father: "You know how much your grandmother loves you! But, nonetheless, I do not want to force you to visit her - go there only if you really want to!" Every child who is not stupid (and as a rule they are definitely not stupid) will immediately recognize the trap of this permissive attitude: beneath the appearance of a free choice there is an even more oppressive demand than the one formulated by the traditional authoritarian father, namely an implicit injunction not only to visit the grandmother, but to do it voluntarily, out of the child's own free will. Such a false free choice is the obscene superego injunction: it deprives the child even of his inner freedom, ordering him not only what to do, but what to want to do."

from How to Read Lacan by Slavoj Zizek

Thoughts among the red and white poppies

Today I am wearing two poppies, one red and one white. To my mind there is no contradiction between the first, which reminds us how important it is to remember the costs of conflict passed and the other which is a commitment to build peace today and in the future. I wear my red poppy because I think that if we really remembered the previous conflicts, we would redouble our efforts to find more creative solutions to conflict at all levels. The white poppy also remembers the sacrifice of those who refused to fight and I take it as a prompt that courage comes in different shapes and sizes and that unresolved conflict takes its toll on everyone around it. At 11 o'clock this morning people all over the world paused to remember that it is 91 years since the fighting stopped in the first world war.

On Monday evening I had the privilege of being at Conflict and Change, our opposite numbers in Newham, a wonderful organisation doing mediation and much more besides to build a culture of peace. Two things really struck me, one was the energy and vision of the young people who had taken part in the Truce 2020 project which we are currently working to bring to Tower Hamlets in 2010. It's such an exciting project, do check out their website, email me if you'd like to help make it happen or make a contribution towards so doing here.

The other thing that struck me was the words of Albino, a peace-builder who has been at the hard end of conflict in Mozambique and now works to decommission weapons from the civil war. His message for those of us building peace in the relative comfort and tranquility of east London was that if we deal with the conflict within families and among neighbours we will build a culture of peace in which their will be no conflict among nations. We a part of a bigger picture that includes domestic conflicts in Africa, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the world wars, one of which ended today, 91 years ago. Today of all days, that feels like an important message for all our wonderful volunteers at THMS making this borough a more peaceful place on day at a time.

Twenty-first century cities

I sometimes wonder if we pay enough attention to the specifics of what it means to be mediating here and now. When I read about Edinburgh Mediation Service, another, very different UK capital city, meet with suburban mediation services like Sutton or Wandsworth or hear about rural services across the country it gives me pause for thought about what a differnce context makes. So this event caught my eye, a talk by the author of an interesting looking book 'Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First-Century City'.

Am out and about on Monday 10th at 6.30 when the event begins, as I'm currently putting together our annual report (watch this space) at the start of this but may pop in. Details of the event here. Maybe see you there?

Mediation and peacebuilding in the news

An interesting study from the Prison Reform Trust here and a chance to build peace on facebook is explored here.

Interesting and encouraging stuff!

Book Club

Hi folks,

Not posted much up on here for a while. Will write a few bits in the next week as there's been plenty happening and new work in the pipeline for 2010/11 that it would be great to get some input on. In the meantime, I thought I'd post up the reading list that went out to the new intake onto the Foundation Course (including me!)

In the new year I'd like to start a book club for anyone who'd be interested to meet once a month and take a different book or article and discuss it. It should be a way for us to meet each other, exchange ideas and develop as mediators. Anyone interested?

Non Violent Communication Marshall Rosenberg (Puddle Dancer Press, 2000)

Life Serving Education Marshall Rosenberg (Puddle Dancer Press, 2003)

The Promise of Mediation Robert A. Baruch Bush &Joseph P. Folger (Jossey-Bass Inc, 1994)

Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: David W. Augsburger (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992)

Drama Workshops for Anger Management and Offending Behaviour James Thompson (Jessica Kingsley Publishers 1999)

Getting To Yes Roger Fisher & William Ury (Random Century Ltd. 1991)

The art & science of communication Pamela Perkins

Getting Past No: Negotiating With Difficult People William Ury (Random Century Ltd., 1991)

Community Conflict Skills: A Handbook for Group Work In Northern Ireland Mari Fitzduff (Mari Fitzduff, 1988)

Violence and The Sacred Rene Girard (John Hopkins University Press, 1972)

Everyone Can Win: How to Resolve Conflict Helena Cornelius & Shoshana Faire (Simon and Schuster, 1989)

Conflict: Resolution and Provention John Burton (St. Martin’s Press, 1990)

Preparing For Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures John Paul Lederach (Syracuse University Press, 1995)

The Tao of Negotiation Joel Edelman & Mary Beth Crain (Piatkus, 1993)

Mindful Mediation: A Handbook for Buddhist Peacemakers John A. McConnell (Buddhist Research Institute / Mahachula Buddhist University, 1995)

People, Peace and Power Diane Francis

The Girard Reader Ed. James J Williams (Crossroad Herder, 1996)

Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads (Crossroad, 1999)

Communicating Effectively for Dummies Marty Brounstein

How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Communication Tricks for Big Success in Relationships Leil Lowndes

Mediation in Context Marian Liebmann

Mediator's Handbook Jennifer E. Beer

Getting Together: Building a Relationship that Gets to Yes Roger Fisher & Scott Brown

Conflict Across Culture: A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences Michelle Lebaron & Venashri Pillay

Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures John Paul Lederach

Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: Pathways and Patterns David W. Augsburger

People Building Peace 35 Inspiring Stories from Around the World

Non-Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea Mark Kurlansky

Searching for Peace: The road to Transcend Johan Galtung, Carl G. Jacobsen and Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen

The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict Robert A. Baruch Bush, Joseph P. Folger

Bringing Peace into the Room: How to Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution Daniel Bowling, David Hoffman

Getting to Peace: Transforming Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World William Ury

Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in Conflict Resolution Bernard S. Mayer

The Making of a Mediator: Developing Artistry in Practice Michael D. Lang, Alison Taylor

Online Resources:

Beyond Intractability http://www2.beyondintractability.org/

Association for Conflict Resolution http://www.acrnet.org/

Mediate.com http://mediate.com/

John Burton (St. Martin’s Press, 1990)