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Dag 3 - Humanistisk mediationUnder oversættelseHumanistic Mediation
Victim Sensitive Offender Dialogue in Crimes of Severe Violence
The video from where the cuts below are showed contains an overview of Restorative Justice in the mode of Humanistic Mediation.
Videotraining clip ↓
Humanistic Mediation is developed by Mark Umbreit and his team at:
Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking
284 Peters Hall 1404 Gortner Ave St. Paul, MN 55108 (612) 624-4923 - Fax: (612) 625-8224 E-mail: rjp@umn.edu
Mental preparation for mediation - Mindfulness medation
Over and over Mark Umbreit has emphasized the importance for the humanistic mediator to become sufficient centred and mentally prepared for the mediation task at hand. Like many other important learned skills in mediation, words cannot communicate the message satisfactory, and thus the mediator must personally go through the processes of centering, achieving awareness and generate genuine caretaking, so he himself can sense how it feels to get them from the mediator compare to not getting them.
First then he/she can adjust to the required mental state, where the client sense that you, though relaxed, are genuine emphatic and full attentively present for him/her, and that you are genuinely taking care, though respecting the parties’ autonomy and keeping you neutrality, - that is being the helper of the parties in their strive to reveal sufficient data to the table, - and only the helper.
Preparation is about emptying your mind of any straining thought. Being completely empty and relaxed makes it possible to open up for the mediation at hand. It’s not easy just at sudden to think about nothing. It is advisable to make some yoga postures taking your full attention. Combined with awareness on physically and mentally relaxation, you become able to empty your mind of any distraction. Do not distract yourself by thinking about the parties, you will meet shortly. Trusting the process makes it easier not to think of any data, and to trust that the data needed, will be present when needed as long as one of the parties is still there.
As Carl Rogers developed person-centred therapy (the main inspiration to humanistic mediation), one of his aims was to create more of a personal relationship with clients, helping the them reach a state of realisation so they can help themselves, encouraging them towards growth on the immediate situation rather than the past, making them able to reach a better sense of self, rather than living in an irrational world, helping them achieve personal growth and or come to terms with a specific event or problem they are having.
The learned skills, mindfulness meditation and mediation, are ways to learn to achieve the special state of mind required, and learning mindfulness mediation is a journey to awareness of 1) yourself, the 2) other and the 3) whole. Like other mindfulness mediators I recommend as means yoga and mediation the Indian way. At Ananda in the Himalayas (just north of the holy city Rishikesh) http://www.anandaspa.com/LocationGuide/index.asp in the foothills of Himalaya in northern part of India, I have found a place for education second to none. By practising, practising and practising you learn to adjust the pace of you mind, and the whole environment is one huge model of genuine caretaking. By the way, the environment, the accommodation, the facilities, the cuisine, the staff and the teachers are unbelievable.The learned skills, mindfulness meditation and mediation, are ways to learn to achieve the special state of mind required, and learning mindfulness mediation is a journey to awareness of 1) yourself, the 2) other and the 3) whole. Like other mindfulness mediators I recommend as means yoga and mediation the Indian way. At Ananda in the Himalayas (just north of the holy city Rishikesh) http://www.anandaspa.com/LocationGuide/index.asp in the foothills of Himalaya in northern part of India, I have found a place for education second to none. By practising, practising and practising you learn to adjust the pace of you mind, and the whole environment is one huge model of genuine caretaking. By the way, the environment, the accommodation, the facilities, the cuisine, the staff and the teachers are unbelievable.
When preparing yourself for the mediation at hand, and when you have reached complete awareness and relaxation, focus on all the sounds around you. Identify them one by one, and go to the next one. Regard them as concentric circles, and go from the outer to the inner. Finally you focus on your breath as the closest sound. Now check the pace of your breathing. Inhale and sense the air as it passes all the way down. Then exhale by emptying your lunges as much as possible without pushing and sense the used air as it passes all the way up. As a mediator should never push but rather encourage, treat your body the same way during the preparation and your body will respond. Follow this procedure till your body is completely relaxed and you mind completely aware. During the mediation, check the pace of your breathing. If it has become short again, make a break in the mediation and prepare once more.
The difference between being physically and mentally relaxed can be illustrated by this parable: When physically relaxed, another person can, by touching a body part of yours, sense if that body part is tense or relaxed. When you are mentally relaxed, you can sense the relaxed body part by thinking of it and by that way check if it is really relaxed and letting go.
Awareness of yourself is the ability to sense any part of your body (relaxed or tense) whenever you want to and likewise to sense body processes as for instance the breath, by which you is able to sense it passing the nostrils, the neck, the collarbone, the rib cage and touching the abdominal muscle.
Awareness of others is ability to sense and imagine what they are feeling and telling (every single word has a meaning); - literally as images on your mind. You have been empathetic, when the other as feedback confirms your images as describing their feelings or experiences appropriate.
Awareness of the whole is ability to sense, imagine and put the sensations and images in to a higher context providing clarity as to what the mediation at hand is really about.
The Private Pre-Meeting
Opening a private session in a co-mediation With Mark and Catherine as co-mediators.
Videotraining clips ↓
Allie is telling about the impact on her and her family
Videotraining clips ↓
If, during the pre-meetings, the mediator gets the impression that the offender will not be able to provide empathy or give recognition so that the other party can be empowered, the mediator will advise against a joint meeting. If, during the pre-meetings, the mediator gets the impression that the victim will not be able to separate the wrongdoing from the wrongdoer enough that the work can concentrate on neutralising the consequences of the wrongdoing and about empowering the offender as a person so that the offence will not be repeated, the mediator will carefully prepare the offender so that the offender can reconsider whether he will participate in the joint meeting.
The Joint Meeting
Videotraining clips ↓
Both in the private meetings and in the joint meeting, the mediator must resist the temptation to fill gaps in the dialogue, and consequently there can be pauses in the dialogue of some length (“... ...”). On a sounds recording of such a mediation, you could get the impression that nothing is happening, but if you are present in the room, you would see in the parties’ body language that during these pauses (“... ...”), a heavy activity is going on for the individual parties. The mediator’s activities aim, among other things, to relate to the human in themselves and in the other parties regardless of the nature of the conflict. Sometimes, the joint meeting is followed up by one or more joint meetings.
Tone
The first thing to notice in humanistic mediation is the calmness radiating from the mediator. It is clear that this kind of mediator shares a special relationship with the parties, and he has a special commitment and attitude toward his work. The session first and foremost is a meeting on the humanistic level, and the mediator attempts to make the human element the pivotal point in the parties’ contact and in his contact with the parties.
Reaction to Other Mediation
The humanistic mediation process is a reaction to the settlement-driven mediation and in many ways shares much in common with the transformative mediation process.
Carl Rogers
Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) has been of huge inspiration to humanistic mediation. According to Rogers, people can be trusted to act helpfully, and assertive individuals will be able to maintain a balance between their needs. Even destructive needs may be balanced by inherent decency. We have a drive to realise our potential and a need for recognition. Realising our potential does not need to be at the expense of experiencing recognition.
Underlying Values
All things are connected and a common humanity exists between everything. Aims
Humanistic mediation is successful even when agreement is not reached if understanding and empathy have been created.
Mediator’s Preparation and Role
The mediator prepares himself for the mediation by blocking out and letting go of everything except that which contributes to opportunities for peace making and wound healing for the process at hand. The mediator’s role is to facilitate and create an environment so that dialogue and mutual assistance are encouraged.
Judgmental Language
Never.
Mediation and Positivism
Even the not yet recognisable is part of the reality if it influences the mediation.
Questions are Never Pure
Questions naturally contain an intention by the questioner, which is based upon certain assumptions. Depending on how they are formulated, questions have a predictable effect on he who is being questioned. In the following, this point is demonstrated in Karl Tomm’s analysis of four types of questions, the prevailing intention behind them and the likely outcome. (See the illustration on the next page.) Any question is grounded in assumptions and preconceived opinions concerning the issues in question. Occasionally, the assumptions and opinions are unconscious.
Linear Questions
Linear questions are asked to clarify sequences.
Question:
“What are your reasons for being here today?”
Circular Questions Circular questions are asked to discover patterns that connect or separate individuals, things, actions, assumptions, ideas, emotions, norms, etc., in a reciprocal or cybernetic cycle.
Open-Ended Questions A question is always open-ended, closed, or something in between. An open-ended question cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” thus opening up the possibility for more or fuller answers. That is, the learned skill here is to be as imprecise in your mediation questioning as possible.
“Mrs. Johnson, would you try to tell me something about why we are gathered here today?”
And not:
“Mrs. Johnson, would you try to tell me something about why we are gathered here today to discuss the humidity problems in your home?” “Can you tell more about the house rental situation?”
And not:
“Can you tell more about the house rental situation in your block of flats?” “What kind of experience has brought you here today?”
And not:
“What kind of experience with your car has brought you here today?” Closed Questions Closed questions can be answered with “yes” or “no” or with simply very little data, and they are linear in nature.
Reframing and Moderating
Reframing is to place statements in a new (and positive) “frame,” or context.
Moderating is within the same frame to decrease the sharpness or the power in an utterance. Positions, Interests and Needs It is usually quite difficult to establish common ground between the parties’ different positions.
The mediator’s job, therefore, is to discover what lies beneath the positions or claims. It is easier to merge interests, needs and concerns rather than positions.
Exercise
Try to answer the questions below
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