Meeting the Moment: Mediation in a Time of Escalation

September 24-25, 2026

Thursday, September 24

8:00-9:00 a.m. - Mardi Winder-Adams – Recognizing High-Conflict Personalities in Mediation: Strategies for Staying Neutral, Effective, and Safe

High-conflict and narcissistic personalities can derail even the most well-structured mediations. In this practical and insightful session, participants will learn how to recognize key behavioral patterns, understand the dynamics at play, and apply proven strategies to maintain control, reduce escalation, and protect the integrity of the process. This session equips mediators with tools to stay calm, neutral, and effective, even with difficult parties.

9:15-10:15 a.m. - Justice Patricia O. Alvarez (Ret.) - Beyond Impasse: Advanced Strategies for Shaping Perceptions and Creating Value in Mediation

Designed for seasoned mediators, this session explores how to shape party perceptions, frame the strengths and weaknesses of each side, and manage expectations without compromising neutrality. We’ll discuss how to move parties from blame to problem-solving, create and claim value, and reframe deadlock moments. The program also includes a focused discussion on the ethical boundaries of persuasion, candor, and mediator discretion.

10:15-11:15 a.m. - Laura Lorber, JD - Beyond "Best Interests": Utilizing Temperament Charting to Build Durable, Reality-Based Parenting Plans

Move beyond the ambiguity of legal generalities and into the biological reality of the child. In this interactive session, Laura Lorber, JD, introduces Temperament Charting—a transformative and easy-to-use clinical-to-legal bridge that anchors mediation in the child’s unique wiring. Participants will explore the nine core temperament traits to understand how "mismatches" often drive high-conflict gatekeeping and parental "stuckness."

Through a blend of lecture and live demonstration, you will learn how to use charting to identify "Goodness of Fit" and create tailored "recipes" for exchanges and transitions. Rather than focusing on a parent's "fault," this framework helps co-parents realize that specific traits may make one parent better suited for certain situations—allowing them to move from defensiveness to a strategic partnership where they lean on one another’s strengths. Attendees will leave with a concrete framework to help families move from adversarial litigation to a reality-based plan centered on the child’s specific needs. As an added bonus, participants who volunteer for the live demonstration will receive a complimentary copy of Laura’s Co-Parenting Plan Blueprint workbook.

12:45-1:45 p.m. - Hon. Linda S. Fidnick (Ret.) - Mediators as Team Members in a Problem-Solving Family Court

Ten years ago, Massachusetts created the Family Resolutions Specialty Court, which is a team-based less adversarial alternative to the traditional family court litigation model. Mediators are key members of each team. This presentation will describe the Family Resolutions Specialty Court, with a particular focus on the enhanced role of our mediators who receive special training for their participation.

2:00-3:00 p.m. - Mark Batchelder, JD – Mediator Professionalism - Neutrality, Empathy, and Ethics

This session will explore these topics and practice suggestions for mediators:

• Facilitation of communication between participants by prompting them to talk about the Past, Present, and Future
• The participants' perception of the authority of the mediator
• Rules versus Agreements for the mediation process
• Mediation contrasted with Moderated Settlement Conference and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution 
• Promotion of Reconciliation, Settlement, OR Understanding among participants
• How to avoid giving opinions and imposing your own judgment on the issues or intimidating participants
• How to support the attorney/client relationship
• How to help participants to process emotions about the past so they can make decisions about their future best interests
• How to recognize and support conciliatory gestures
• How to maintain a curious rather than an accusatory mindset
• How to help with questions, agendas, and proposals

3:15-4:45 p.m. - Sam Imperati, JD – Walking the Fine Line Between Impartiality, Advocacy, and Providing Legal Advice

This interactive workshop will define the theoretical and practical differences between Impartiality, Neutrality, and Omni-partiality. We will examine if, when, and how to convey substantive information to the parties within the bounds of the IMA Standards and ABA Formal Opinion 518. Do the rules change for "social justice" mediations? Do the answers change depending on the mediator’s approach?

Friday, September 25

8:00-9:30 a.m. - Vicki Read, LPC – Trauma Informed Mediation: From Theory to Application

Approaching mediation through a trauma-informed lens provides the space for parties to fully participate in the mediation process and craft satisfactory resolutions. We’ll look at how the guiding principles of trauma-informed care correlate to the basic tenets of mediation and provide a framework for the parties’ engagement that avoids re-traumatization, techniques for minimizing secondary trauma to the mediator, understanding how our own trauma triggers could derail the process, and much more.

9:45-11:15 a.m. - Fonda Jovick, JD – Reading the Room: Psychological Strategies for Challenging Mediation Clients

This CLE presentation by Fonda Jovick, a mediator/attorney with a background in forensic psychology, is designed to help you reframe "difficult" client behavior in mediation. The core insight is that challenging behaviors like aggression, withdrawal, or rigidity typically serve a psychological function — masking fear, overwhelm, or a sense of powerlessness — and that understanding the why behind the behavior is the key to managing it effectively.

The presentation walks through four specific client types: the Controller/Dominator, the Victim/Helpless Client, the Expert/Challenger, and the Highly Emotional Client. For each type, Jovick outlines the underlying psychological drivers, how the behavior shows up in mediation, and practical strategies for both attorneys and mediators to respond — emphasizing a collaborative, trauma-informed approach. She closes with a note on ethics and the value of a strong attorney-mediator partnership in reducing burden on both professionals and improving outcomes for clients.

12:00-2:00 p.m. - Holly Birdwell, CPM and Jennifer Poole, CPM – Mediation Ethics – What Would You Do (Part II)?

Mediators often encounter situations in mediation sessions that pose potential or actual ethical dilemmas. This interactive presentation, based on real-world mediation scenarios, will guide participants in identifying ethics concerns in relation to the IMA Standards of Practice and the ABA Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators. In addition, attendees will explore and discuss possible approaches to addressing these ethics concerns.