Mediators have long debated whether "evaluative mediation," the kind commonly practiced by retired judges and others who frequently mediate in the context of litigation, should be called mediation. The crux of that debate concerns whether evaluations by the mediator undermine party self-determination. Simon and West's book is intended to advance the conversation beyond the question of evaluation to include subtler ways in which mediators may undermine or support self-determination. Self-determination is a principle that distinguishes mediation from other forms of dispute resolution and is a topic taught in most introductory mediator training courses. Discussions generally focus on the experience of participants and the techniques employed to nurture and safe-guard self-determination. Much of the writings that touch on self-determination talk about the techniques and strategies mediators use in order to support party self-determination. Uniquely, Tara West and Dan Simon follow a different path. They too are interested in the methods used by mediators, but what distinguishes their book is their examination of the mediator's decision-making process. In a step-by-step exploration, they show first how mediators assess the situation, then generate a possible explanation for the parties' attitudes, behaviors and ways of communicating, and finally choose an approach intended to encourage party self-determination. As part of examining the mediators thought process, the authors also describe how, in generating an explanation, mediators purposefully examine their own reactions to the parties as well as their own beliefs and theories. In this, they show how beliefs influence action-a key aspect of reflective practice. In the practice examples they explore throughout the book, the authors also emphasize the importance of and methods for learning from and through experience.
Dan Simon, MA, J.D., is a Fellow and Board Member of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation (ISCT). He wrote "Transformative mediation for divorce: Rising above the law and the settlement," a chapter in Transformative Mediation: A Sourcebook (ACR, 2010), and co-authored "Transformative mediation: Illustrating a relational view of conflict intervention," a chapter in The Mediation Handbook (Routledge, 2017). He also writes the blog for the ISCT and is a featured blogger on Mediate.com. Dan has practiced and taught mediation since 1996. He is a past-chair of the ADR Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association and served for six years on the Minnesota Supreme Court's ADR Ethics Board. He received his M.A. in Counseling Psychology and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota; and he received his B.A. in Humanities from UC: Berkeley. He has been licensed to practice law in Minnesota since 1992, and has practiced mediation exclusively since 1998. Dan has provided mediation training as an adjunct professor at the law schools of Hofstra University and the University of North Dakota, as well as through his own organization, Simon Mediation. Tara West, J.D., Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. in Social and Health Psychology from Stony Brook University in 2003, and her juris doctor from the New York University School of Law in 2008. She has been licensed to practice law in New York since 2009. Tara has been trained in facilitative, evaluative, understanding-based, and transformative approaches to mediation, and has mediated family, workplace, small claims, and neighbor disputes in public and private settings. She has been certified as a transformative mediator by the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation. Tara has co-authored ten scholarly publications in the field of psychology, and has taught and developed undergraduate and graduate psychology courses covering topics such as socio-cultural approaches to psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, and small group processes. She currently teaches social psychology and the psychology of conflict resolution for the City University of New York, School of Professional Studies.
