Reflection in mediation
Reflection in mediation
“I sometimes find - and I am sure that you know the feeling - that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind. At these times,” said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.” (From Harry Potter, by JK Rowling, quoted in Moone (2006)).
Wouldn’t it be fabulous to be able to extract one’s thoughts (like Dumbledore) and reflect on them from a different vantage point. What would we see? Would we have greater clarity or would be find a level of discomfort in viewing them as an outsider. What were we really thinking at that time of that particular experience. Do you feel differently about a particular experience and how you reacted at the time, now you have some distance between the event and the emotions you felt?
The art of reflection is a critical part of mediation practice and can help mediators improve their skills and provide better services to clients. “Reflective practice is the process and skill professionals use to think critically about and improve their work”[1].
But how do you do it, and what are the benefits?
Reflection in mediation
Reflection is a form of mental processing that we may use to fulfil a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. The reflector requires to ‘stand back’ from a particular memory or event, challenging their own ideas, and actions and reconciling past events with enhanced knowledge or experience. “Mediators need to practice reflecting during the mediation (in action) and after the mediation (on action). (D. Schon 1983)[2]” But how do you do it?
The Mediation Institute has provided 5 steps on how to undertake reflective practice.
· Step 1 - identify a situation in your personal or professional life that you believe could have been dealt with more effectively.
· Step 2 - Describe that experience, what happened, where and when did the situation occur.
· Step 3 - The reflection. How did you behave, what feelings did you experience, what thoughts did you have. Were there any other factors that influenced the situation.
· Step 4 – Theorising – consider the observations from your reflections and discuss with others. When you theorise, you consider what the explanations might be for how something happens.
· Step 5 – Experimentation. Having reflected and theorised on a particular situation, is there anything that you would do differently if placed in a similar situation. What actions might you take in similar situations in the future[3].
The benefits of reflection
Reflection allows a mediator to maintain and reemphasise their neutrality and impartiality, “when working with other peoples values, beliefs and social locations, [it is important not to] attribute our own values, beliefs and thoughts, with another person’s”[4] Reflection allows a mediator the space to recognise other people’s views, whilst observing and practicing neutrality.
Other benefits of reflection include:
- Increased self-awareness and discovery of beliefs
- Recognition of unconscious bias
- Cognitive Housekeeping, which is the integration of old and new cognitive material to create a new form of knowledge
- Acknowledging the importance of your own emotions.
Conclusions
Reflecting on past experiences with critical thinking can often be a difficult thing to do, whether that it is in your personal or your professional life. Reflection requires bravery, and open mindedness. There is no limit on the number of experiences you may reflect on.
From my own personal experience, some of my greatest learning as a mediator and a solicitor, has come when several years have passed between the initial experience and the point of reflection. I have, since qualifying, reflected (with some deeply cringeworthy feelings) of my actions as a trainee solicitor, and how I have used those experiences to modify how I might approach particular situations in the future. I have also forgiven my inexperience and learned to move on.
Whatever stage of career you are at, try and create some time for your own “Pensieve” and give reflection a go, to see what you might learn or uncover about yourself.
Lindsay Robinson is a Senior Associate and Mediator at Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP.
[1] Looking Inward: the art of Reflective Practice. Mediation Institute.
[2] The importance of reflection as a mediation professional, Hayley MacPhail , 9 July 2024
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid