What Is Mediation?
At Clear Creek Mediation Center, we work with parties to identify their interests and needs. We collaborate to fully develop not only your expressed positions but also your underlying concerns. We ask that each party fully listen and understand the position and underlying concerns of the other party. From this understanding we guide the parties to develop a joint mission statement of their objectives.
Mediation is a process in which people or groups who are in conflict, can work together to arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution. The mediator is a person who facilitates this process. He or she is neutral and not involved with anybody in the dispute.
In this process, the parties, with the help of the mediator, identify their interests, prioritize their needs and find the best ways of communicating these interests. Conflict in life is normal....and, of course, it is very normal for people who are ending a marriage. Yet, we are often frightened of conflict, whether we can manage our emotions within it and whether we will come out with the best result. These concerns do not have to become reality, however, and with a trained and skilled mediator, the individuals can negotiate through their conflict to a mutually acceptable result.
A mediator is a “negotiation coach,” also, in that he or she guides the participants away from a “zero-sum,” win-lose attitude and toward the interest-based negotiation model. Rather than become entrenched in positional bargaining stances, participants are encouraged to explore and describe their underlying interests.
A mediator is a “protector of the process and the participants.” He or she will assure that neither party will feel threatened or abused. Everything said within the mediation is confidential and cannot be used at a later time to injure the other person or damage their interests in the legal dispute if mediation is unsuccessful.
The greatest benefit of mediation is that the participants fashion their own resolution. Nobody knows them and the intricacies and nuances of their relationship and their needs the way they do. Certainly no judge or arbitrator can understand the complexities of their lives and relationship after a hearing or trial well enough to make a ruling that is appropriate for their specific circumstance. A mediated result conforms best to the disputants' real needs.
Mediation is, of course, much less expensive than litigation, by a factor of many thousands of dollars.
Mediation allows all individuals to talk unlike a courtroom where a judge is limited based solely on evidence presented.
Mediation saves the participants from the wounds that are inflicted in litigation.
Mediation allows people in conflict to resolve their disagreements (often wrenching disagreement over intimate and crucial personal issues) in an environment of integrity and mutual respect. Individuals emerge from the process feeling stronger and better about themselves and the other person.
