Cultural and Diversity Issues in Mediation and Negotiation

Abstract

Mental health professionals often engage in professional, work that resembles mediation and negotiation. Whether in the form of couples counseling, family therapy, parent-child counseling, or simply the setting of boundaries and ground rules in individual psychotherapy, mental health practice has much in common with the work that mediators do. In this chapter, we offer the perspectives of two practicing mediators on a subject that is critical to the work of both mediators and mental health professionals-namely, cultural and diversity issues. Mediators routinely encounter racial, cultural, and other forms of diversity in their work, and therefore no curriculum of mediation training would be complete without consideration of the challenges (and opportunities) that accompany such diversity. In the Massachusetts Uniform Rules on Dispute Resolution, cultural diversity is listed as one of the "critical issues" in the training curriculum required for court-approved mediation programs. Mediation is sometimes described as "making a safe place for a difficult conversation." Mental health professionals are often engaged in that same process, and among the things that make such conversations difficult are the differences described in this chapter. Although we cannot treat this subject exhaustively in one chapter, we can offer perspectives-both our own and those of experts in the field-as an introduction to some of the diversity issues that arise in mediation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)