ABOUT BALTIMORE MEDIATION
Baltimore Mediation was established in 1993 by Louise Phipps Senft as the first mediation firm in the state of Maryland. For over a decade, the consultants at Baltimore Mediation have been in the day-to-day business of mediating interpersonal and multi-party disputes and facilitating divergent group dialogue, as well as training and mentoring some of the best mediators in the state of Maryland. Our emphasis is placed on quality dialogue as a pathway to common ground and greater understanding in relationship disputes. Baltimore Mediation has assisted in thousands of conflicts and disputes in both businesses and family relationships, and designed and facilitated hundreds of board meetings, business meetings and retreats as well as trained thousands of professionals across the country in the transformative approach to mediation.
Since BM’s inception, the team has followed a transformative and systems approach to conflict, with a focus on the quality of the interaction and dialogue. This approach to conflict resolution is especially appropriate for families with years of relationship and for organizational settings that, by their very nature, have many divergent factors and stakeholders. Family members often have the need to preserve or to restore a level of respect and integrity while grappling with difficult issues or having difficult conversations. People within organizations also tend to have the need for a process to facilitate working with each other while maintaining creativity and productivity, as well as respectful relationships. As part of BM’s offerings, clients may choose mediations between two or more people, group and board facilitations, executive conflict resolution coaching, and workshops and trainings, all from the transformative framework, which fosters quality dialogue.
Another hallmark of BM is quality assurance and evaluation of all our services, whether you choose to engage in a three-hour mediation session, a half-day or full-day facilitation or retreat or a three day training. BM approaches each client as an opportunity to build a relationship, sustainable and reliable over time. When requested, BM works with each client to establish tailored goals and hallmarks for monitoring progress and outcomes.
BALTIMORE MEDIATION MISSION AND PHILOSOPHY
“Mediation. Facilitation. Training…Better Process. Better Outcome.”
The philosophy of Baltimore Mediation is that while conflict in families, organizations, governmental agencies, educational institutions, businesses, boards of directors, churches, associations, and communities has the potential to act as a healthy and creative force for change and growth, failing to deal with it in a constructive manner damages individuals, organizations and relationships. Baltimore Mediation is devoted to community service and to teaching and assisting others in the resolution and transformation of conflicts and disputes through dialogue. Baltimore Mediation is also dedicated to, and expert at facilitating, difficult or complex conversations and taking the stress out of stressful interactions.
People often avoid open confrontation because they are uncomfortable with conflict or do not have sufficient skills to deal effectively with conflict situations. Others know only how to fight. Conflict resolution training from the relational worldview provides people with a grounded transformative approach, greater self-awareness, and a set of tools and a process empowering themselves and others to constructively face and effectively channel conflict, rather than allowing hostility to build, positions to harden, assumptions and hopelessness to permeate, and situations to become unmanageable and very stressful.
Baltimore Mediation seeks to offer a transformative approach to otherwise adversarial means of resolving conflict. We believe mediation services and training will help people to avoid resorting to potentially destructive means of resolving serious disputes— through emotional or physical violence, through legal battles, or through avoiding tactics that allow disputes to fester and personal health to suffer.
The transformative approach is also ideal for providing a process for quality dialogue when groups want to grow, expand, or work more cohesively together. Transformative facilitation for groups dislodges barriers and restores connectedness, which serve as the new or renewed foundation for quality decision-making, stronger relationships and future productivity.
We invite anyone interested in promoting mediation or practicing conflict transformation skills in their organization, workplace, or family to contact us. Our desire is to elevate the level of public knowledge and awareness of the mediation and facilitation alternative. Our vision is that the use of mediation for disputes becomes a natural and first response to conflict for families, businesses, organizations, churches, and associations. Our parallel vision is that the use of facilitation from the transformative approach becomes a natural and first choice for important business, board and organizational meetings, and retreats for surfacing core commonalities as well as differing points of view since doing so will provide for a better workplace and build future capacity for the group and society.
William W. Senft & Louise Phipps Senft