ANDREW KITCHENHAM  PhD

Today, I would like discuss the concepts of transference and countertransference in conflict management. This topic is rarely taught in training programs but often arises—usually unrecognized—in conflict management: conflict resolution, conflict mediation, and conflict coaching. Transference is an unconscious process where a person remembers feelings from a person in the past and projects those feelings on a person in the present. Jones (2005) defined transference as “an unco

Last week, I discussed Roger Fisher and Scott Brown’s barriers to communication and his week, I would like to further their argument by outlining ways we can improve communication. According to Fisher and Brown, barriers to communication include the assumption that we do not need to talk to the other person about an issue, communicating in one direction so that we tell the person something rather than open up for discussion, and sending mixed messages. Bearing in mind those t

Last week, I presented some information on the role of negotiation in mediation. This week I would like to discuss the role of communication in mediation. In their (1988) book, Getting together: Building relationships as we negotiate, Roger Fisher and Scott Brown outline barriers to communication and ways we can improve communication. Communication is complex but it is extremely important in all aspects of our workplace and personal lives. We all have experienced the emotion

Today I would like to present information on negotiating based on Roger Fisher’s and William Ury groundbreaking text, Getting to yes, and to lay out their central tenets and their relationship to conflict management. Fisher and Ury founded and continue to work at Harvard Negotiation Project and were pioneers in laying the groundwork for generations of mediators and negotiators. In order to frame their four elements of negotiation, I need to point out that broadly, negotiating

Last week, I discussed frame of reference and its importance in the mediation process. Today, I would like to outline its importance in mediation with people from different cultural backgrounds. When mediating parties of different cultures, it is paramount that a mediator understands how change occurs in individuals (Ewert, Barnard, Laffier, & Maynard, 2019) or how people can change their minds. An important aspect of that understanding is cultural competence or “[an awarenes

Today, I would like to discuss the frame of reference in relation to conflict resolution and mediation. I will start with a brief discussion of what a frame of reference is and then move on to how its importance is realized in conflicts. A frame of reference is “a person’s subjective reality, shaped by his or her particular experience and culture, and the basis for his or her perception of the world” (Ewert, Barnard, Laffier, & Maynard, 2019, p. 120). In adult learning theory