TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIATION: CHANGING THE QUALITY OF FAMILY CONFLICT INTERACTION

This chapter on transformative mediation is organized as an answer to three questions about divorce mediation: Why is this process being used? What is the basic nature of this process, and especially the mediator's role? How does a mediator work with the parties in this process? Answering these three questions - why, what and how - will provide the reader a good overview of the transformative model in theory and practice. We begin in this section with the "why" of transformative mediation, because we believe that the answer to this question provides the only solid foundation for answering the other two. Based on that answer, we offer a brief description of the process and the mediator's role. Then, in the following section, we discuss at greater length the "how" of transformative mediation practice.