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Tag: Anger

Anger and New Mediators

Anger and New Mediators by Gary Shaffer

{4 minutes to read} What’s the role of anger in addressing conflict resolution? I was recently at a training for new mediators and coached a group of attorneys working through a role play. These trainings are always interesting in terms of watching others learning a new skill, as a refresher of basics, and getting some new ideas. At one of these trainings about a year ago, a law student trainee came up with a great line, one I have since used on at least one occasion. The comment, made to the two opposing parties in the role play, was, “You guys think you’re miles apart. But you’re not; you’re a football field apart.”

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Anger as a Pathway to Resolution in Commercial Cases

Gary Shaffer, https://www.shaffermediation.com/, discusses commercial mediation and managing emotions. In my last blog I introduced the subject of anger at a mediation. Many people tend to associate anger and mediation with snarling divorcing couples, arguing over who is right and who is wrong.

While this certainly happens, anger can be just as profound in commercial cases where parties may feel equally wronged by each other. At a minimum, one side does. This can present the mediator with a quandary:

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Anger as a Pathway to Resolution, Part I

Gary Shaffer, https://www.shaffermediation.com, shares his opinion on the emotion of anger.There are very few emotions as destructive as anger. Shootings, murders, rapes, spouse and child abuse, intra-family squabbles (big and small), road rage, divorce, gang violence, are all fueled in part by anger. Anger is usually an aspect of any litigation, although even mediators must acknowledge that litigation as a dispute resolution mechanism is light years ahead of violence.

Anger and violence go back a long way. Whether we take the Bible as historical truth or a fundamental mythos of our collective Western unconscious, the first act of violence is primeval: it occurs between the very first human offspring. Most of us think we know the story, but just in case, the entire events are described in only seven short verses, as follows (Genesis, 4:3-9):

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About Us

An honors graduate of Harvard University and the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University, where he also served on the Law Review, Gary brings more than 30 years of litigation and negotiation experience to his practice as a mediator. He has successfully negotiated and mediated resolutions in family matters, employment cases, commercial disputes, personal injury cases, and major civil rights matters.

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Phone :- 347.314.2163
Email :- gary@shaffermediation.com