Understanding and Addressing “The Thanksgiving Phenomenon”

Discussion moderated by Don Saposnek and Joanna Teanini Roth

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern (10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Pacific)

About the Webinar

APFM’s current Mission Statement, “APFM is a professional organization dedicated to developing the profession of family mediation and to supporting family mediators in their work,” has been based upon a traditional (i.e. normal) socio-political context in which we have practiced our craft, in which core truths and core values have mostly been aligned. However, as we currently experience on a daily basis, we are neither living nor working in normal times. As such, continuing with “business as usual” has not been serving us or our membership very well. When the mediator unavoidably is a participant in systemic conflicts beyond the mediation room, we can see the significantly increased demands on the mediator, and we believe that the mediator’s skill set can be brought to bear in developing a broader understanding of conflicts.

Most of us have experienced some version of what we are calling “The Thanksgiving Phenomenon,” in which families no longer can share this celebratory meal together because of political differences—the same disputes that have caused major fissures in our society-at-large being mirrored within our own families. Yet, despite our increased awareness of such major rifts, we have been politely hesitant to acknowledge and address such disputes even though armed with our collective skill sets as mediators and their great potential for conflict resolution and conflict management.

In pursuit of these explorations, we are proposing that we begin to openly discuss the influence of our current political polarization on ourselves and on our mediation work with families and ask our members to help us increase our understanding of these outside sources of influence. With a sense of urgency to this clarion call, change must begin with conversations. We will begin a series of structured conversations to explore how we might more effectively use our mediator skill sets to address the very polarized, politicized, and difficult conversations with which we have struggled in talking with families, friends, and others. We invite you to join us in these discussions.

Our first discussion, open to our membership, will take place on May 19 at 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern (10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Pacific). In this meeting, we will begin to frame our first structured discussion and ask participants to share their experiences with such issues, both personally and professionally.

About the Moderators

Don Saposnek

Donald T. Saposnek, Ph.D., is a clinical-child psychologist and family therapist in practice since 1971, a child-custody mediator and national and international trainer and consultant since 1977, and a Founding Board Member of APFM. He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals of conflict resolution, is Editor-in-Chief of APFM’s publications, and has published extensively in the professional literature on families, children, divorce and mediation. He is the author of Mediating Child Custody Disputes: A Strategic Approach, and co-author of Splitting America: How Politicians, Super Pacs and the News Media Mirror High Conflict Divorce. He has taught on the Psychology Faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz for 41 years, and is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution since 2009.

Joanna Teanini Roth

Joanna Teanini Roth, JD, is a divorce mediator in Seattle. She established a Balint consultation group for collaborative professionals in 2017, to deepen professionals’ individual and joint capacities to creatively empathize with clients. She began to co-lead the group in 2020, and is certified through the American Balint Society as a group leader. She also leads a monthly discussion group of collaborative and mediation professionals, with the aim of providing a place for new and experienced professionals to learn from each other through discussing a wide variety of topics. Joanna has served on more committees, sections and boards than she cares to remember. When not working, she is leading group fitness classes and dancing hula. She eats her weight in chocolate each year, and believes it is not possible to have too much fabric.

Time and Place

Tuesday, May 19, 2026
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern (10:00 – 11:30 AM Pacific)

More Information about the Webinar

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