Summary of Meetings: ADR - Nanaimo
Number of Meetings Held: 5
November 20, 2025
Registration Count: 31
Guest Speakers: Laraine Ashpole
Meeting Title/Topic: Conflict Coaching in Mediation
Synopsis: Conflict coaching provides an opportunity for both the mediator and the party to assess their readiness for mediation, identify and address potential challenges (including high conflict behaviours and trauma). Laraine Ashpole explores some of the strategies to assist parties to prepare themselves for success and of course, discussing the potential ethical dilemmas, including bias and self-determination.
February 5, 2026
Registration Count: 60
Guest Speakers: The Honourable Robert J. Bauman, KC, & Stephen McPhee, KC
Meeting Title/Topic: ADR: Looking Ahead
Synopsis: The Honourable Robert J. Bauman, KC, and Stephen McPhee, KC, share an eclectic review of trends emerging in the world of dispute resolution-mediating and judging in their widest connotations.
The ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ of working in ADR are discussed, including topics such as:
Demographic trends
The changing and challenging subject matter of future disputes
The ‘how’- new methods of resolving these disputes
The specific context of the discussion centers emerging technologies and the challenges, promise (or curse) of AI in the mix, is briefly explored.
March 18, 2026
Registration Count: 37
Guest Speakers:Michelle LeBaron
Meeting Title/Topic: Dancing at the Crossroads: Four Alchemical Processes to Explore How Mediators Cultivate and Mobilize Hope in Unsettled Times
Synopsis: This workshop takes its inspiration from these lines from Seamus Heaney:
“So hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge,
Believe that a further shore is reachable from here…”
Professor Michelle LeBaron leads a workshop offering a short journey through four alchemical processes to explore how mediators cultivate and mobilize hope in unsettled times. The conflicts we work with carry the valence of wider concerns. How can we be alive to these concerns while assisting others to shift stuck dynamics? How is beauty a resource in our work? What role do arts and creative practices play? As these questions are explored with reference to mediation practice experiences, Professor LeBaron reflects on how Jungian concepts of alchemy, when sistered to arts, can be resources in our work.
April 16, 2026
Registration Count: 43
Guest Speakers: Donna M. Soules
Meeting Title/Topic: Defensiveness in Mediation
Synopsis: Donna M. Soules explores the many faces of defensiveness and how to adopt a curious attitude to understand the root of defensive behaviors. Given that defensiveness is a perceived threat to our self-image or face, digging for the gold to uncover what is hidden is valuable. The discussion covers how understanding how face-saving erects barriers and impedes the exploration of interests.
Defensiveness is often silent and unconscious, adding – unacknowledged – another issue to the agenda causing confusion. When defenses ride in, the mediation is at risk of being hijacked.
Donna reviews theories from different psychological perspectives affecting both mediators and clients. These theories are integrated with discussion of practical skills used by experienced mediators to address defensiveness, along with stories from Donna’s mediation practice.
Skills such as asking open questions, exploring, and probing are discussed to help parties in mediation name the perceived threat of the unbearable idea. The presentation is supplemented by illustrations applying theory to practice and demonstrating skills. This session is interactive, calling on participants to contribute their own insights, experiences, and skill practice of open questions.
June 18, 2026
Registration Count: In-Person: 6 Remote: 24
Guest Speakers: Michael Lang
Meeting Title/Topic: Does Practice Make Perfect?
Synopsis: What makes a good mediator great? Most of us believe that experience alone builds skills and ability. That’s not true — we become competent by learning from our practice experiences. What do we do when faced with a surprising or puzzling situation—when a settlement falls apart, bias is alleged, outcomes seem flawed, or a case lingers in our minds?
These challenges are common for new mediators and arise even for the most experienced. Michael Lang shares how reflective practice makes use of puzzling practice situations to become more resourceful and effective. Experience matters, and what matters even more is learning from our experiences.