Mediation

This page is under construction. For now I just want to start by saying I am a strong advocate of mediation. It was very helpful to me personally when I was involved in an extremely expensive and emotionally wasteful divorce.

I recently got a request for a copy of my feeling words list from an attorney in the USA who is helping resolve disputes there through mediation. Here is a copy of one letter I got from him, printed with his permission. I feel encouraged to know about his work and the work of the courts there.

Steve, the US District Court for Northern California, located in San Francisco, has the leading Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program of any US District Court in the country. There are 3 attorney/mediators. We oversee and train a panel of approximately 300 volunteer mediators, most of whom are lawyers. We also mediate cases ourselves, lead reflective practice groups for our mediators, and assist the attorneys who file cases in the court to choose appropriate ADR processes for their cases. If you want to learn more, you can check out the ADR portion of the Court's website. The url is: http://adr.cand.uscourts.gov/

It is very, very important when one is in a helping role to do 3 things, from my experience: 1) set up appropriate boundaries so that you are not overwhelmed and give too much; 2) practice allowing the emotional waves to pass through you, as opposed to into you; and 3) get away from it, release it all, and open your heart in other directions...and then go back.

Respectfully,
Daniel

Daniel Bowling
ADR Program Staff Attorney
US District Court for Northern California
415.522.2022