Explore how we can encourage learned compassion with parties in a mediation and whether as mediators this our role to do?

Compassion has two forms, biological and learned. Biological compassion is the emotional type we naturally feel towards others with whom we love. Much like the love of a mother and child at the moment of birth. Learned or intentional compassion is the compassion we can train ourselves to feel in relation to others we do not like or who have harmed us.

This workshop looks at learned or intentional compassion. Can we, as mediators, encourage our clients to be more compassionate? Recent research suggests we can. The workshop will outline the strategies for encouraging compassion in clients. The question will also be asked - whether encouraging our clients to be more compassionate blurs the role of the mediator.

Compassion and mindfulness are concepts that are relatively new to the field of mediation. They are also currently popular topics in mediation and other disciplines and attract a lot of media attention.

The presentation will:

• Present empirical research designed to investigate the impact of compassion and mindfulness on an individual’s approach to mediation scenarios.
• Offer a new methodology of approaching mediation and conflict resolution.
• Ask for participant’s feedback about whether they use such practices and their own results and encourage them to think about ways of incorporating these techniques into their practice.

Participants will be engaged in stimulating activity or discussion to embed learning through:

• Asking the audience at the beginning of the presentation whether they currently use mindfulness, compassion or other spiritually-based practices in their mediation practice.
• Asking whether they think spiritually-based practices work and how they know.
• Creating some exercises designed to illustrate how and why the research obtained the results it did. eg. Looking at research on priming and influencing
• Providing some challenging questions for the audience to consider after the presentation.
• Encourage a discussion about mediator neutrality. Is it ethical for a mediator to influence their clients to be more compassionate? Does mindfulness have risks in mediation?

Podcast: Listen to Caryn talk about this session pre-kon gres (7 mins) >>

Outside of work Caryn loves scuba diving, the ocean, boats, anything to do with water!, art, yoga, pilates, meditation, running, reading, being in nature, animals, spending time with family and friends, meeting new people, learning, and travelling. She has travelled through the UK, Europe, Africa, South America, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, New Zealand and Australia. And… there are plenty more trips planned!