Talking Alternatives is a professional mediation firm specializing in parent/teen and adult family mediation. As mediators in a family practice, we facilitate conversations between family members so that they are able to reach mutually agreeable resolutions to a family dispute. In the beginning of this process, each family member comes to the table with their own thoughts about how the dispute should be resolved. After listening to one another, the family members begin to hear the real underlying concerns of each family member.
From there, the parties can become creative in reaching an agreeable solution to their problems. For example, two sisters have an aging mother who lives alone and is showing signs of dementia. Both sisters have a different position on their mother’s situation. One sister wants their mother to live in an assisted living facility and one sister wants their mother to live at home. Although the sisters have two different positions about where their mother should live, the mediation process allows the sisters to discover that their positions are based on the same underlying concerns-the safety and well-being of their mother. Once the sisters are able to recognize and hear that they have the same concerns about their mother, they are able to discuss a variety of ways to insure their mother’s safety.
Through real conversations, family members are able to move past the assumptions and anger that prevents them from reaching resolutions to important family disputes such as those involving aging parents or parent-teen problems. Family mediation provides a non-threatening way for family members to have open and honest conversations about real concerns. With this information, family members can begin to move past their positions in order to reach mutually agreeable resolutions. And…at the same time, the family relationships are preserved.
Talking Alternatives
