Family Meditation Blog
Building Bridges With Words
I am a peace-maker at heart and I think through and reflect on the conflict I see around me.
On the pages of this blog, I’ll write about the tips and tools I’ve found to be helpful to families navigating separation, divorce, or conflict in general. I will reflect on my own experiences and draw out themes with the hopes that they might resonate with you and you find something meaningful in them.
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About the author - Dr. Sara Shamdani
I am a socio-political scientist, a published author and a mediator, with a life-long passion for learning and transforming. As a first-generation immigrant and a racialize woman, I think through and write about conflicts in various systems of operations, whether in family or the workplace and offer ways of working through and transforming those conflicts for the creation of stronger communities.
Check out this free Family Negotiation tool-kit that was created through research and data to help you understand the details of negotiating your separation. Download now here.
Co-parenting during the Holidays
Holidays can be both an exciting and a complex time for many, filled with grief and sadness. This is particularly true for families going through or having gone through a separation process. Although it can be challenging to navigate co-parenting around holidays and special occasions, you can create a time that is filled with joy and connection for your family. Read more to learn about tips on how to do that.
What I have learned as a family mediator: things that will help and hinder a mediation process?
Family mediation goes only as fast as the parties’ agreements. I have mediated cases where it only took 90 minutes to work out an entire parenting arrangement and I have also mediated cases where it took months to bring people closer together. Here is what I have learned which help move the mediation process along, save time and money for the couple, and the issues that will stall the mediation process.
A Childhood War Story & Helping Children to Cultivate Resiliency
It is now over five weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine and extremely distressing videos of dead and injured civilians, including the children and the elderly continue to pour out as a reminder of what war does to people, their land and culture. I am frequently reminded of the war that defined my own childhood. I was born into an 8-year-long war between Iran and Iraq that killed close to a million people. The resulting devastation of both countries left deep wounds of trauma on our bodies and minds.
A circle back to Science fiction
"My feelings are hurt", is such a wonderful sentence. My feelings. The focus, the subject of the sentence is the feelings, the feelings that belong to the person who is experiencing and narrating them. In this sentence, there's no "you", although the "you" can be implied, the focus is so strictly on the person who has been hurt. It's a simple utterance of truth about one self in its most indisputable way.
Family Negotiation Toolkit
Get access to information because informed decisions will lead to longer lasting agreements. When parties are willing to work through their disagreements with kindness and with as much peace as possible, it will serve the unique needs of their families.
Family Mediation vs. Court
Separation and divorce are considered the second-highest stress factor in someone’s life, preceded only by the death of a loved one. During this transitional time conflict can rise to a new level that hadn’t even existed before. Some systems and individuals can help reduce the conflict or contribute to heightening it.