IM Campus Webinar: Asking Questions in Mediation
11 December 2023
16:00 CET
Led by Lisa Parkinson, UK; Author of Family Mediation 4thed. 2020Register Now to Apply
Event Information
Mediators spend a lot of time asking questions rather than providing answers because the aim is to help participants work out their answers and decisions.
Researchers in the US found that skilled questioning by mediators was associated with positive outcomes, whereas mediations that failed were associated with inadequate questioning techniques. Kressel and colleagues found that skilled mediators organised their questions in a structure like a pyramid, with broader information-gathering questions at the base, leading up to narrower questions towards the top.
Event Details
In initial information and assessment meetings, questions are asked to gather information and assess the suitability of mediation, moving up the pyramid to more precise questions to gain further understanding and encourage reflection.
Mediators may ask as many as twenty different kinds of questions, including directed and non-directed questions, present-focused, future-focused and past-focused questions.
There are also more complex questions, such as hypothetical, circular and reversed questions.
Questions should be asked during a friendly conversation, not as an interrogation. Each question needs to be well-balanced, sensitive and selected according to the stage of the mediation and the nature of the issues.