Mediation is a process that is structured to help people communicate better. It works towards achieving consensus and helps to reduce tension between people in conflict. Mediation meetings are confidential and without preudice.
There are three stages to a mediation process:
1) The commissioning stage: the process is initiated, the participants identified and terms are agreed.
2) Individual meetings with each participant. This is an unstructured meeting, at which the participant can talk confidentially about the situation and plan what they want to present and how they want to present it to the other participant.
3) If both participants agree, I arrange a joint meeting which is a structured to allow all participants to speak and discuss the issues. One joint meeting may be enough to improve communication, but sometimes participants need more than one session, especially in cases where they want a written agreement. I advise leaving time for reflection between individual and joint meetings.