Solution‐focused mediation: The future with a difference

Abstract

Rather than dwelling on the conflict, solution‐focused mediation asks: What would you prefer instead of the conflict? The focus is on the desired outcome: the future with a difference. Clients are considered capable of formulating their own goal and of devising solutions. The expertise of the mediator lies in asking questions that help clients in this respect and that motivate clients to change. This article demonstrates that concept and the methodology differ significantly from other types of mediation. Conversations become increasingly positive and shorter, ensuring that solution‐focused mediation is also cost‐effective.

Exploring Helpful Tensions between Divorce Mediators and Clients: A Relational Dialectical Analysis

“…The findings in this study also lend some support to outcome studies that assumed or established that mediation is an efficient process in terms of time, costs, and settlement rates (Emery, Sbarra, and Grover ; Kelly ), as well as to the cultivated reputation of mediation as offering a quick and future‐focused solution (Bannink ).…”

Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Therapy on Married Couples’ Burnout

“…Therefore, it can be concluded that a solution-focused therapy reduces physical exhaustion in the experimental group. The results are consistent with the research findings of Izadi (4), Navidi et al (13), Bannik (19), and Pines (6). According to Table 4, the difference between the means of emotional exhaustion of the two experimental and control groups is also significant (P < 0.001, F = 98.15).…”

“…Therefore, it can be concluded that a solution-focused therapy reduces psychological exhaustion in the experimental group. The results are consistent with the research findings of Mosavizadeh (20), Izadi (4), Bai (14), Adibrad (21), and Bannink (19).…”

Stretching the Coaching Model

“…We also draw on various approaches from the larger coaching world to inform our work. Solution‐focused coaching or brief coaching (Szabo and Meier , applied to mediation by Bannink and Dingwall and Miller ) is a useful, overarching analogue that provides context for the style of coaching that we provide. This model comes from the clinical practice work called solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT), which developed in the 1980s (de Shazer , , ; de Shazer & Berg, ; de Shazer et al ) and is now used in a wide array of environments, from prisons to offices to community centers.…”

“…But just like [a] frame maker, the coach would never start actively creating the picture” (Szabo and Meier , 1–2). Dutch mediator, coach, and author Frederike Bannink has also written about solution‐focused mediation, in which the mediator works with parties to focus on the desired future rather than remain mired in the problems of the past (Bannink ).…”