Premise: Conflict is a normal and natural occurrence of interacting with one another. The cost of resolving conflict is negligible relative to the cost of leaving conflicts unresolved.

Your marriage is in question and you’re facing a real dilemma. You may be the one who is deciding should you stay or should you go.

(This article was first published in the Oakland County Legal News on May 30 and June 27, 2023.) “The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy, and the power to transform and resurrect.”  Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which I have practiced for more than a decade, has taught me invaluable life lessons on and off the mats.  After a recent training session, I began to realize that many of the lessons of jiu jitsu apply to a different part of my life: mediation.

Preparing yourself for a mediation is challenging. No one likes conflict, and no matter how well you prepare or how much faith you have in the process, there will be emotion involved.

As far as I can tell, the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest technical advance for mediators and mediation since the original adoption of email in the 1980’s and the commercialization of the web in the 1990’s. AI is that important.