How is Nonviolent Communication mediation different from therapy?
Therapy brings in more of the past to help clients understand and transform their behavior in the present. Mediation works with what is alive in clients right now: their feelings, their needs, and what would make life even better in this moment. Little time or attention goes to the past. How does this kind of mediation differ from other kinds of mediation? In the mediation system that stems from our legal structure, mediators (who are often former judges) sometimes comment that mediation is successful if everyone goes away unhappy. In Nonviolent Communication, the goal is that everyone’s needs get met. This model differs drastically from other models in that NVC mediators do not expect anyone to give something up, otherwise known as “compromise.” We come in expecting that everyone’s needs will get met, and this is what happens much of the time. How does your practice differ from other NVC mediators? I like my clients to go away with skills in hand to use in their daily lives, so all my
