Your family can be a nice and safe place to be. It can also be a terrible place. Anything criminalized by the criminal code happens more or less in numerous families.

 

But legislation on behaviour doesn�t make life in families easier, safer, more energetic or freer of conflict. Family life has a frame of its own, and conflicts within families can often be solved inside that frame. Family is a system, and the relations between the individuals in the family system are frequently of more interest than the individual to deal with.

 

Focussing entirely on the characteristics of the individual makes conflict resolution more difficult. 

 

The cognitive systemic style of mediation is frequently preferable I family conflicts.

 

Mediation of family conflicts can lead to improving or dismantling of relations. Mediation can clarify whether the family or members of the family need special professional assistance.

 

Unfortunately families only seek mediation when things have gone really bad. That is divorce, separation, custody, access or sharing assets. Experience suggests that really many family conflicts can be solved by assisted dialogue.

 

As children of divorce parents frequently become divorce parents themselves, it is important for the role modelling that the parents to their children demonstrate that conflict can be solved by assisted dialogue.