When it was published in 2000, John Winslade and Gerald Monk?s groundbreaking book Narrative Mediation quickly became the classic work on the theory of narrative technique in mediation. Practicing Narrative Mediation is the next?step resource that explores the explosive development of narrative practice that has taken place in the past ten years.

Practicing Narrative Mediation provides mediation practitioners with practical narrative approaches that can be applied to a wide variety?of conflict resolution?situations. Written by John Winslade and Gerald Monk—leaders in the narrative therapy movement—the book contains suggestions and illustrative examples for applying the proven narrative technique when working with restorative conferencing and mediation in organizations, schools, health care, divorce cases, employer and employee problems, and civil and international conflicts. Practicing Narrative Mediation also explores the most recent research available on discursive positioning and exposes the influence of the moment?to?moment factors that are playing out in conflict situations. The authors include new concepts derived from narrative family work such as "absent but implicit," "double listening," and "outsider?witness practices."

Practicing Narrative Mediation will help both family and community mediators hone their skills to make sense from and generate meaning within the conflicts they encounter.

Praise for Practicing Narrative Mediation

"As the field of mediation increasingly professionalizes, often with a heavier focus on narrowly defined techniques to forge agreements, Practicing Narrative Mediation is a welcome relief. This book recuperates the deeper significance of story and narrative as defining aspects of how we make sense and meaning of conflicts in our lives, relationships, and communities. Indispensable reading for those approaching mediation as a process of meaningful change, not just the ending of a problem."
—John Paul Lederach, professor, International Peacebuilding, Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame

"John Winslade and Gerald Monk have written a wonderful, extraordinary, immensely important book, filled with profound theoretical insights, examples, and practical techniques that can be used in any mediation. They brilliantly expose the hidden dynamics that shape conflict stories and reveal their transformational possibilities for all of us to see."
—Kenneth Cloke, author, Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice, and Terrorism

"This compelling, engaging, and profoundly hopeful book gestures us toward a different future. By considering how conflicts are shaped by particular ways of speaking, and by dominant cultural understandings, John Winslade and Gerald Monk provide us with new ways forward."
—David Denborough, editor, International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work

"Practicing Narrative Mediation clearly demonstrates that a narrative approach to mediation can be an important aid in resolving ethnic conflict at the international level through ?affirming the other as other? and ?releasing the potential for cooperation and for peace.??"
—A. Marco Turk, J.D., professor and director, Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Program, California State University?Dominguez Hills

John Winslade and Gerald Monk are leading figures in the narrative therapy movement and authors of basic works in the field, Narrative Mediation and Narrative Therapy in Practice, both from Jossey?Bass. They began their work together at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, where they were also involved in the work of Waikato Mediation Services. John Winslade is a professor and coordinator of the Educational Counseling Program at California State University, San Bernardino. Gerald Monk is a professor at San Diego State University, Department of Counseling and School Psychology.