Transformative Mediation

Maria Volpe

Professor of Dispute Resolution, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York

Interviewed by Julian Portilla, 2003


This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

We'll have them together for a couple of months, which is different than our earlier version. I suspect with this particular group of young people that there will be more significant transformation. In this field we often talk about transformative mediation and we bring individuals together for two or three hours, and we think from our perspective that the individuals are now transformed. And they came in with years of feelings, baggage, and that we transformed them, or the process transformed them. Most of the situations that I deal with require a lot more than the traditional mediation session for a transformation.