Unexpected benefits of mediation — Part I

The Ithaca (New York) Journal ran a guest column last week on ithacajournal.com by Judy Saul of the Community Dispute Resolution Center, titled “Mediation is a good choice to settle conflicts civilly.” In it, she described how mediation can help people in conflict. One of the interesting points was the value of using meditation to clear the air to allow better planning for the future. It is easy to think narrowly about mediation and believe that it is limited to ending active disputes. In fact, as those who used the CDRC’s services said, mediation can be helpful in allowing parties in conflict to create a new working relationship that will allow them not only to handle a current conflict, but also to prevent future disputes or to handle them effectively if they should arise.