Narrative Mediation

Most professionals trained to resolve conflicts ground their efforts in the theory that people are motivated by a desire to fulfill their personal interests. Mediators work to assist disputing parties by discovering a shared interest, which will motivate each party to resolve their conflicts. However, despite the widespread use of this traditional problemsolving, interest-based model of conflict resolution, incidents of violence, international hostilities, and legal disputes continue to escalate worldwide.

In this book, John Winslade and Gerald Monk introduce narrative mediation—a new paradigm in the field of conflict resolution and a radical departure from the traditional interest based, problem-solving approach to resolving disputes. Winslade and Monk reveal how this innovative approach, which seeks out the conflicting parties’ individual stories, can be applied to create lasting resolution for a wide variety of conflicts. At the heart of narrative mediation lies the goal of developing a context for creating a relationship that is incompatible with conflict. This transformed relationship is built on stories of understanding, respect, and collaboration.

Using actual scenarios from their mediation practice, Winslade and Monk show how the mediation context is filled with strong cultural narratives influenced by ethnicity, gender, class, education, and financial status. The narrative mediation technique guides professionals and their clients to make sense of the complex social contexts that shape conflicts, and ultimately helps to create new possibilities for change. In accessible, everyday language, the authors reveal how to build a trusting relationship with the disputing parties, map the effects of the history of the conflict, construct new solution-bound narratives, and finally move toward consensus and resolution.

Written for therapists, counselors, professional mediators, lawyers, students, and trainees in the field of dispute resolution, Narrative Mediation offers an innovative approach that opens a wealth of new possibilities for the resolution of personal, professional, and legal conflicts.