Family mediation · Separation
Family mediation: leaving the conflict through the front door
Sometimes, formidable tensions turn into conflicts of such intensity that it becomes almost impossible for parents to collaborate — even when it concerns their own child.
When therapy is not even conceivable because of the conflict, mediation may prove the most interesting way forward: it allows each party to leave the conflict through the front door, and to put the child back at the centre of everyone’s concerns.
Leaving through the front door means neither winning nor having a ruling handed down: it means finding a way out that humiliates no one and gives the parents back their place as parents. Very concretely, it also means no longer making the child carry the weight of a disagreement that is not theirs — an issue found in everything touching on couple separation and on the needs of the children who go through it.
There are four main currents of family mediation in France. They differ in their stakes, their processes, their concepts and their specificities: among them is a group narrative model, which draws on the resources of storytelling. For anyone wishing to compare them, a collective volume is devoted to the subject.
Courants de la médiation familiale : enjeux, processus, concepts, spécificités
How to cite this article
Besse, J. (2023, February 12). Family mediation: leaving the conflict through the front door. Complexe Systémique. https://app.complexe-systemique.com/en_GB/articles/family-mediation-leaving-the-conflict-through-the-front-door
To go further
- Separating without destroying each other: what no one tells you about couple separationWhat nobody tells you about couple separation, and about what it demands from both sides.
- The 7 fundamental needs of children when parents separateWhat a child needs when their parents separate — and what conflict so often pushes into the background.
- Parental alienation: myth or reality?A much debated notion, to be handled with care when a child ends up caught in the conflict.
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