Mirrors and Lights: The Art of Supporting Self-Determination in Mediation

Simon and West provide a research-based exploration of what is often understood as the core principle of mediation, self-determination. Through stories and examples of how people in conflict and their mediators struggle to find a way through, this essential guide gives readers a seat in the mediation room.

Dan Simon, MA, J.D., is a Fellow and Board Member of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation (ISCT). He wrote ＂Transformative mediation for divorce: Rising above the law and the settlement,＂ a chapter in ​Transformative Mediation: A Sourcebook ​(ACR, 2010), and co-authored ＂Transformative mediation: Illustrating a relational view of conflict intervention,＂ a chapter in ​The Mediation Handbook​ (Routledge, 2017). He also writes the blog for the ISCT and is a featured blogger on Mediate.com. Dan has practiced and taught mediation since 1996. He is a past-chair of the ADR Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association and served for six years on the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ADR Ethics Board. He received his M.A. in Counseling Psychology and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota; and he received his B.A. in Humanities from UC: Berkeley. He has been licensed to practice law in Minnesota since 1992, and has practiced mediation exclusively since 1998. Dan has provided mediation training as an adjunct professor at the law schools of Hofstra University and the University of North Dakota, as well as through his own organization, Simon Mediation.

Tara West, J.D., Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. in Social and Health Psychology from Stony Brook University in 2003, and her juris doctor from the New York University School of Law in 2008. She has been licensed to practice law in New York since 2009. Tara has been trained in facilitative, evaluative, understanding-based, and transformative approaches to mediation, and has mediated family, workplace, small claims, and neighbor disputes in public and private settings. She has been certified as a transformative mediator by the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation. Tara has co-authored ten scholarly publications in the field of psychology, and has taught and developed undergraduate and graduate psychology courses covering topics such as socio-cultural approaches to psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, and small group processes. She currently teaches social psychology and the psychology of conflict resolution for the City University of New York, School of Professional Studies.