Articles for Mediators
Mindfulness for Mediators: Towards Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls and Doing Better Mediations
By Stuart Reed | Being present, authentic, patient, and committed to integrity are aims of mindfulness. These same qualities can help mediators avoid ethical pitfalls and better serve mediation participants.
Standards — Self-Determination
By Steve Erickson | We need a way to assess skills and provide credentials for family mediators who are client-centered, non-coercive, and respectful of self-determination. Other approaches masquerading as mediation are confusing the public.
New Tax Law Significantly Impacts Couples Going Through Divorce
By Michael Wayland | What aspects of new tax law affect divorce settlements? Changes related to filing status, standard deductions, child tax credit, alimony, mortgage interest, and home equity loans are discussed.
Careers in Family Mediation
By Virginia Colin | By forming a mentoring network and learning from each other, professional family mediators can build successful careers. Success includes earning a living.
10 Paradigm Shifts of High-Conflict Mediation
By Bill Eddy | When you are working with high conflict people, the methods mediators usually use may be counter-productive. A structured, proposal-focused approach is more helpful to them.
Why Professional Family Mediators and APFM Need Each Other: A Manifesto
By Virginia Colin | Professional family mediators need an organization that helps them improve their skills and attract clients. APFM needs members’ active participation.
The Children’s Bill of Rights in Divorce
By Robert Emery | During and after separation and divorce, kids should have the right to love and be loved by both of their parents without feeling guilt or disapproval. They should be protected from their parents’ conflicts.
Calming Upset People With EAR
By Bill Eddy | Empathy, attention and respect are the opposite of what you feel like giving someone when he or she is upset and is verbally attacking YOU, but they are what works. People who are very upset generally cannot think well or negotiate constructively. With empathy, attention, and respect, you can help them calm down.
Cleaning out the Garage: A Metaphor for Divorce Mediators
By Ariella Shuster | Metaphorically, deciding what to keep and what to let go of during divorce and experiencing the associated memories and feelings is like cleaning out a long-cluttered garage.
Divorce: Fear and its Consequences
By By Jeri Breiner, | The idea of getting divorced tends to immediately predispose individuals to become fearful of change, of backlash, and of the unknown territories ahead.
The Alienated Child: Commentary on the Intensity of Rejection and an Elaboration of the Therapeutic Team Approach
By Maddy Cacciatore | Children who are alienated from one of their parents may be projecting a lot of their pain onto the rejected parent. Helping them may take a team effort.
Using ADR Ideas to Negotiate Divorce Agreements
By Larry Gaughan | Adversarial attorneys can learn from mediators about using constructive processes instead of exacerbating competitive, dysfunctional divorce negotiations.
You may have interest in prior editions of APFM’s newsletter, The Professional Family Mediator.