Mediation

In order to make a living while I am building my mediation business, I work as an adjunct professor of Acting at a local college. One of the basic but most difficult aspects of acting to be learned is the art of listening. Not just pretending to listen but actually listening tolines that you sometimes […]

Often, when disputants arrive in my Magnum Mediation virtual meeting room they have lost something. Whether it is money, friends, business partners, neighbors, inheritance, land, the list is endless. But the one thing they all have in common is grief. Grief over something or someone they’ve lost. The blame is usually shifted onto the other

A few months ago, I mediated a family business dispute and they paidme well. I deposited the money in my business account, shifted some ofit into a tax account and just let it sit there. There is always aninternal debate on how I can best spend the money I make as a mediatorin order to

As a mediator, I’m obligated to sit in a room, virtual or otherwise, and listen to complete strangers relate the circumstances of their dispute in ways they hope will be compelling and convincing. Occasionally they embellish those stories. Occasionally they lie. How do we, as professional neutrals, discern the truth from the…untruth? Why do we

I was recently asked to mediate a family business dispute, something I’d never done before. Having previously worked as an actor, I did what any actor would have done if they had been in a similar position.

The Southern California Mediation Association is one of the most extraordinary organizations I’ve ever been a part of. The benefits of joining are only equal to the benefits you derive from becoming a mediator. The most important qualities a mediator has to possess are patience and generosity of spirit. Also, the ability to listen with

A continuation high school is where students who struggle in the regular public high schools can come to make up their credits. Sounds easy but it’s tough to leave behind the habits that got you into trouble in the first place. They come to school ready to blame everyone else to such an extent that

I’ve always believed that life is about perspective and choices. Justlike any tool, first, you have to have them, then you have to know howto use them. In mediation, the lack of at least one alternative perspective orchoice becomes evident very quickly. The parties appear, ready to dobattle, coming from their respective corners where they

In November 2017, I had a stroke. It occurred deep in my brain and totally paralyzed my left side. I spent a week in intensive care, then six weeks in a convalescent hospital, followed by many months in a wheelchair going to physical, occupational, and speech therapy. When I got fed up using a walker