First, as readers, you need to understand what mediation is. Mediation is a form of conflict resolution in which parties who have a conflict choose a neutral third party called a mediator to help them resolve their dispute without the extra time and money involved in a trial.
There are several different specific kinds of mediation, which include problem-solving mediation, settlement-oriented mediation, facilitative mediation, evaluative mediation, and transformative mediation. This article will help you to understand what transformative mediation is as well as understand the differences between transformative mediation and the other types of mediation listed above.
Problem-Solving Mediation:
As the title describes, this type of mediation deals specifically with solving problems. It is much more focused on identifying, defining, and resolving problems in a fairly quick manner than transformative mediation is.
Settlement-Oriented Mediation:
This type of mediation is also mostly explained in the title. It focuses on reaching a settlement agreement in a quick manner.
Facilitative Mediation:
In this type of mediation the mediator asks questions to the parties involved and tries to determine the underlying issues, while letting the parties involved make all the suggestions for resolution.
Evaluative Mediation:
In this type of mediation the mediator will look for and point out weaknesses in the case of the parties and tell them what a judge or jury would be likely to do in their case.
Transformative Mediation:
In this type of mediation two factors are stressed greatly, which are empowerment and recognition. This type of mediation doesn’t concern itself with immediate resolution, but instead works on defining issues, getting each of the parties to see the conflict from the others perspective, and works on getting the parties to come up with their own solutions to the conflict. This may take more time in the end, but the conflict will end up being more resolved with the amount of time and work that is put into it. Now, you may be wondering what empowerment and recognition mean in the context of transformative mediation. These two factors are described in more detail below.
Empowerment:
Empowerment in transformative mediation means that the mediator will work with both parties in the conflict in order to increase their skills so that they may resolve conflicts on their own and make their own solutions to disputes better than they were able to before.
Recognition:
Recognition in transformative mediation means that the mediator will work with both parties to help them to see the other person’s perspective of the conflict and to better see their views.
Throughout this article, we have discussed what mediation means, the different types of mediation and what they focus on, the differences between the different types of mediation, and the main factors that transformative mediation concerns itself with. The nature of the dispute will determine the type of mediation that is necessary, but transformative mediation is especially helpful in cases where the relationship between parties is close and the parties involved wish to retain the relationship, such as in family cases, and disputes between friends, co-workers and neighbors.