. . .this book goes far beyond cookie-cutter approaches and offers powerful insights into new ways of thinking about conflict resolution, mediation and lawyering.

Eminently readable, The Mediation Field Guide is both a basic mediation primer and a philosophical text. Phillips, a former assistant U.S. attorney, and an experienced mediator and popular trainer, offers a vision of mediation that transcends popular categorizations.

A Restorative Framework

She locates mediation within a wide historical framework of collaborative processes, such as consensus building, partnering, restorative justice and facilitation-all of which can restore balance to a conflict resolution system that has been badly damaged by excessive emphasis on litigation.

Critical of the rigidity and abuses of the adversary system, Phillips questions how long the legal profession will continue to have a monopoly on civil dispute resolution.

Readers familiar with mediation literature will be interested in her gentle but probing critique of The Promise of Mediation, wherein the authors Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger advocate a "transformative" over a "problem-solving" mediation model. Phillips is critical of such either/or approaches, arguing instead for the possibility of multiple models to operate simultaneously. 

Phillips likes the concept of "reflective mediation," but she proposes adapting it by "taking it out of the purely mental and basing it in the heart." This approach, says Phillips, is not a model, but rather a "way of being in the mediation process" in which mediators let go of their agendas and belief systems. 

What exactly does reflective mediation have to offer? Here is Phillips' definition:

"By letting go of the mediator's agendas, whether to solve your problems or to transform you, by mirroring to you and the others what it is that you seek ..., by reflecting to all of you the vastness of the resources you bring with you ... the reflective mediator is in service not just to your short-term interests, but to your midrange interests and long-term values."

Mediation is, for Phillips, the feminine face of dispute resolution. Thus, underlying the book are powerful references to human love, human dignity and the values of forgiveness and reconciliation. 

This book makes an important contribution to the growing literature in holistic lawyering and therapeutic jurisprudence, strengthening the belief that law can be a healing profession. Phillips encourages readers to break out of molds that bind and inhibit creative thinking, and urges them to think in holistic rather than in linear fashion. 

This is a multipurpose text, full of practical wisdom and good examples. It is not only for mediation practitioners and trainers, but also for lawyers advising clients about the mediation process and for parties who will use the process. 

Phillips discusses the benefit of having a lawyer at mediation, and then offers strategies on how to select and then to use one effectively. Specific chapters on employment and construction mediation and contract negotiations are very helpful. 

Appendices provide exercises for mediation and conflict resolution training, helpful information on drafting dispute resolution clauses and mediation agreements, and a sample confidentiality agreement. 

What a welcome inspiration to the field of conflict resolution. 

Jacqueline M. Nolan-Haley, American Bar Association Journal,  www.abanet.org/journal/nov01/html.

"If you want to explore below the surface of conflict, if you want to open your heart as well as your mind; if you want to discover real wisdom from a master mediator, this is the book for you. Barbara Phillips is clear and profound, intelligent and attuned, expansive and insightful. Buy this book and find out why." 

Kenneth Cloke, coauthor of Resolving Conflicts at Work and author of Mediating Dangerously. 

"Barbara Ashley Phillips's insights offer a lens that views the majesty of mediation in its broadest societal and historical context. The informed reader will be inspired and the uninitiated will be convinced." 

James J. Alfini, professor of law, Northern Illinois University and past chair, American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution

"This book will be extremely useful and enlightening for anyone involved or interested in mediation, whether as a client, party, lawyer, law student, or mediator. I would also highly recommend it to anyone involved in litigation, just to provide a fresh perspective. Phillips does an excellent job of mixing practical, real-life examples with theory. She also has an excellent grasp of the historical context of and deeper philosophical issues underlying the new mediation paradigm she describes. One can only hope that her ideas and approaches to
resolving human conflicts become widespread and universally embraced." 

Susan Daicoff, associate professor of law, Florida Coastal School of Law

"Phillips makes her greatest contribution-- and displays her greatest courage-- when she analyzes current trends and "hot topics" in the dispute resolution field. . . .

. . . it is hard to argue with Phillips conclusion that we stand at time of remarkable transition: 'The twentieth century may go down in history as time of ferment leading to a massive reorientation of our conflict management systems or as a time when opportunities for peaceful change were seen but ignored.' 

Jonathan Reitman, for mediate.com 
http://mediate.com/articles/reitman.cfm,

352 pp; Jossey-Bass Publishers; Cloth; ISBN 0-7879-55711-X; June, 2001;
$33.00 USD;