Mediation & Conflict Transformation
Meet anywhere. All services are currently provided "virtually."
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.
What is Best for You?
The idea - and what truly works in practice - is that we all dedicate ourselves to live by what we participate in creating for the better. In a legal context, a judge or arbiter will declare the terms of a settlement for you based on what they determine is legal and appropriate according to the remedies they have. In mediation, you decide for yourselves what you'll take into consideration and, ultimately, what is fair and best for all of you.
Participation in mediation is voluntary. That's part of the purpose. You choose to participate because this could be your best chance at taking care of what is important to you and everyone concerned. Take care of what you need at least expense, minimizing legal or other coercion, and with the least cost of enforcement.
By participating fully in this structured and facilitated process for communication and negotiation, the transparency, presence, and good will you bring can help you preserve, restore, or even heal what has been strained or has suffered. This happens. Give it your best.
The idea - and what truly works in practice - is that we all dedicate ourselves to live by what we participate in creating for the better. In a legal context, a judge or arbiter will declare the terms of a settlement for you based on what they determine is legal and appropriate according to the remedies they have. In mediation, you decide for yourselves what you'll take into consideration and, ultimately, what is fair and best for all of you.
Participation in mediation is voluntary. That's part of the purpose. You choose to participate because this could be your best chance at taking care of what is important to you and everyone concerned. Take care of what you need at least expense, minimizing legal or other coercion, and with the least cost of enforcement.
By participating fully in this structured and facilitated process for communication and negotiation, the transparency, presence, and good will you bring can help you preserve, restore, or even heal what has been strained or has suffered. This happens. Give it your best.
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.
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.
To explore mediation / conflict transformation options that meet your needs, click the red button to schedule a 30-minute no-obligation, no-cost Discovery Session.
Let's get you to the other side, beyond conflict.
Let's get you to the other side, beyond conflict.
I would not hesitate to recommend Beata to you for any client business matter requiring resolution. She is well-organized and well-prepared. She is very effective in resolving difficult situations. Beata is an excellent mediator.
K. Sommer, Esq, Attorney & Founding Parter - Sommer Udall Lawfirm
Beata is a great, personable coach with tremendous intuition, creativity and an orientation for results--but more importantly: an orientation for making sure the results are actually aligned with what her clients TRULY want (which sometimes isn't the same as they initially think they want). ... see "Client Reflections"
M. Bohunovsky, former CEO - Modula4, Inc.
At a time when the Burning Man phenomenon was growing rapidly and diversifying globally, our organizational founding Board was experiencing disruption and strife. We hired Beata at this inflection point to guide us in clearing out divisive patterns of communication and interaction and in choosing ways of leading together more collaboratively, with mutual respect and reciprocity. Beata facilitated conflict transformation and change with our six-person Board that catalyzed healing of persistent trust breakdowns so that we could build forward on a more trustworthy and resilient foundation among ourselves. ... See "Client Reflections"
M. Goodell, Board Member & CEO - Black Rock City LLC
Lead. Collaborate. Grow. ... to Thrive!
You can't shake hands with a closed fist.
Indira Gandhi
I would not hesitate to recommend Beata to you for any client business matter requiring resolution. She is well-organized and well-prepared. She is very effective in resolving difficult situations. Beata is an excellent mediator.
K. Sommer, Esq, Attorney & Founding Parter - Sommer Udall Lawfirm
I have known Beata since the mid-90s as a mediation colleague and a friend. We share a dedication to peace at work and to the transformative promise of the mediation process in all its variations. An embodiment exercise I learned from Beata years ago has become an inspiring teaching in my own work with students and clients. I appreciate her insight and skill in guiding people to face any challenge with greater resourcefulness, trust, and ultimately fulfillment. You are in good hands with this caring and capable expert.
J. Ford - Mediator; Author of "Peace at Work: The HR Manager's Guide to Workplace Mediation" and "The Empathy Set"
Choosing co-creation is an obvious step to take in resolving conflict. We all recognize the value of cooperation. So why do we often forget it when conflicts arise in our life? There is one simple reason: it takes time, energy, and work to co-create when there are major differences in a relationship. It's easier to avoid a problem, or "go along" with the opposing viewpoint (secretly resentful, of course), or simply fight it out. Co-creation takes listening and understanding and a commitment to discovering a solution together. It means not having it be just your way, but rolling up your sleeves to create new possibilities.
The Magic of Conflict: Turning a Life of Work into a Work of Art, by Thomas F. Crum
Mediation [is] appealing not because resolution or settlement [is] good in itself and conflict evil, but because of the way in which mediation allow[s] disputing parties to understand themselves and relate to one another through and within conflict. In short, many have come to feel that empowerment and recognition - the transformative dimensions of mediation - matter as much or more than settlement, and they matter not only in themselves but as expressions of a much broader shift to a new moral and social vision. As such, their importance is primary and immense.
The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict Through Empowerment and Recognition, by Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger