Adverse childhood experiences such as trauma, abuse, and domestic violence are linked to risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions, and short life expectancy (Felitti et al., 1998). Therefore, it is paramount for children who experience such challenges to be treated with utmost care and support to ensure a lasting healing effect is achieved. Mediation will help ensure these goals are accomplished by providing hope for the children in multiple ways (Malcom & O’Donnel, 2009). Mediators will ensure a child bonds with other caregivers who will then ensure the child experiences caring and compassionate relationships (Herbert et al, 2011). This then ensures the healing effects of mediation are achieved for kids who have adverse childhood experiences. Therefore, mediation assures that children achieve a healthy mind by establishing a positive bond with other adults and care givers.
Mediation guarantees that the kids are given a chance to talk about the adverse experiences they have been through. For adults, talking about the problems and the challenges they go through is easy (Mcewen, Mather & Maiman, 2014). Adults can open up to their friends and this enables them to easily cope with the challenges they experience (Ashley, 2001). However, kids find it difficult to communicate and open up about their experiences (MacKinnon & Fairchild, 2009). For instance, those kids who have been raped and traumatized may find it difficult to trust someone and talk about their experiences and emotions. However, through mediation, the kids learn to trust other people and they are therefore able to share their experiences and emotions with deeply empathy and connection. This helps create a harmonious healing situation for their problems since talking reduces the intensity of the pain that the bad experiences engender.
Children with adverse experiences in their lives need to feel loved in order for them to heal quickly. For instance, the kids in families with domestic violence often feel ignored by their guardians. They are greatly affected by the lack of love in their families. Through mediation, these children will most certainly feel loved and this creates a healing situation for the problems experienced by them (Grusin, 2015). The mediators will ensure children are removed from the environments that expose them to the adverse experiences (Moore, 2014). Additionally, the mediators will ensure the children are placed in an environment where there is love and care. This will help them to heal and forget the bad experiences they have been through.
Mediation provides a platform where active listening can take place. Active listening is an important strategy that can be applied to ensure an empathetic connection is established between the caregivers and the kids (Story et al, 2004). Kids may feel more comfortable talking to a stranger they can trust other than a relative (Rucker, Preacher, Tormala, & Petty, 2011). Mediators can assure that they remain supportive and neutral when children make the decision to discuss traumatic experiences (Beardsley, 2011). They are able to ensure the children are not pressured to talk about topics they are not willing to discuss. Therefore, through mediation active listening can take place encouraging that the children feel supported and make them more willing to share their traumatic experiences. Thus, mediation for kids fosters a highly creative purpose that will help establish limitless pathways for healing the children.
Mediation ensures the children feel recognized and valued by others in the society- locally, nationally, and universally. Kids that have been through traumatic situations require universal social support. Additionally, there is a possibility that these kids may push back against the support offered to them (Grusin, 2015). However, through mediation the confusion that exists concerning trust is eliminated. The mediators will understand the situation of the children and they will offer the required support regardless of the resistance they might receive from the children (Nolan, 2013).
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