Mediation

The promise of mediation is for you to move beyond conflict. Where communication has broken down and you're at loose ends about how to cross the gulf between you and the person(s) with whom there's difficulty, working with a mediator can lead to a truly satisfying path forward.

The goal of mediation is for you to reach an agreement for moving forward. Getting to that "yes" might resolve the dispute and it might transform someone or something in the process.

Reaching mutual understanding, much less an agreement you all come up with and choose to abide by together, can seem an outrageous stretch when you're in the thick of a deeply rooted or complex dispute. But it really happens.

When You Choose Mediation

The vast majority of conflicts submitted to mediation are resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties within one or a few sessions. In legal and non-legal professional contexts, mediation offers a forum for renewing communication, restoring trust, and reaching actionable agreements to overcome substantial impasses and move forward with clarity, alignment, and creative energy.

Decision-Making Control is Yours

Resolution is achieved by agreement, rather than imposed by an outsider's decision: e.g. judge, arbitrator, authority figure of some kind, etc. A durable agreement, which is binding and enforceable, meets the needs and interests of the parties concerned. You retain control over vital business and relational decisions. You minimize the need for subsequent revision or costs of enforcement. And in the unlikely event that a disputed matter cannot be resolved by mediation, you retain all rights to litigate, arbitrate, or seek resolution some other way.

Low Risk / High Benefit

Mediation helps you optimize your use of valuable resources in resolving conflict: e.g. money, time, information, relationships, etc. The process is confidential, private, and arranged to suit the needs of the parties. When attorneys are involved to support the process, mediation is a golden opportunity to resolve conflicts and reduce the damage of expensive legal contests. I highly recommend you use your own trusted counsel - business and legal advisors - effectively to help you engage in mediation and to reach, review, and fulfill a mediated agreement.

Beata as Your Mediator

Bridging Lives is who I am and what I'm about. Bridging Lives has its roots in mediation and in my abiding dedication to leadership and collaborative excellence. As an attorney I had a front-row seat for "power games," which included witnessing the damage of communication breakdowns, loss of essential goodwill, and the hemorrhaging of resources where people were desperate for better solutions to costly human and business problems. My own continual quest for more effective and empowering ways to transform conflicted and painfully self-defeating situations keeps this work cutting edge and personally relevant. My commitment is to a more facilitative approach that elicits more creative capacity and wisdom of individuals and of the group.

Back in 1995 when mediation was just beginning to take hold in the U.S., I chose mediation as my bridge from the known into the emergent, from a career as an attorney to one as a mediator, facilitator, change consultant, and executive coach. In addition to specialized professional development programs I have offered for conflict resolution, collaboration, and leadership informed by mediation principles, I have assisted in mediation training programs offered by other professional mediators (e.g. Steve Rosenberg Mediation). My pathway to specializing as a Master Somatic Coach began after co-creating an innovative program with a German Attorney/Mediator colleague, Ulla Glaser: emBODY-INg Conflict Transformation. Today my deep well of resources draws on building and restoring trust, cultivating presence and addressing embodied trauma, and applied social neuroscience for communication and leadership.

Over the years I have gained experience mediating disputes of many kinds, in both legal and non-legal contexts, including:

• Community
• Family Business & Estate
• Workplace | Employment | Diversity Equity Inclusion
• Joint Venture | Partnership Dissolution
• Public Policy | Environmental
• Bankruptcy (Certified Panel Member since 1996 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Northern District of California)
• Americans with Disabilities Act - ADA - (Certified Panel Member since 1996 of the Federal Department of Justice program for mediation of disputes under the ADA)

See how this multi-faceted perspective and adaptability can work for you.