The Narrative Approach to Mediation

Narrative Mediation is a new approach to mediation that was spurned by Narrative Family Therapy, developed in the mid-1980s by Michael White and David Epston, in Australia. It came out of their interest in post-modernism and social constructionism, in examining the making of meaning through the filter of language and the subjective interpretation of “facts”. While Narrative Therapy has become relatively mainstream in Family Therapy, Narrative Mediation is still a relatively new and unexplored phenomenon in the field of mediation. Narrative Mediation is being pioneered presently in Waikato Mediation Services in Hamilton, New Zealand, through the work of John Winslade, Gerald Monk, and Alison Cotter. Monk and Winslade have also taught counseling courses at the University of Waikato, at the School of Education’s Human Development and Counseling Program, where Winslade is at present a Senior Lecturer. At this time, Monk is the Director of the School Counseling Program at the College of Education at San Diego State University. Now, I would like to tell you a story about Narrative Mediation.