Samantha Hardy

You are doing an intake with one of the parties to a workplace mediation. Somewhere in the conversation they tell you, almost as an aside, that they are already looking for other roles. They have mentally checked out. They are hoping that by the time the mediation takes place, the question of how they work

When parents come to mediation disagreeing about whether their child should be assessed for neurodivergence, or whether an existing diagnosis is valid, the presenting issue rarely captures what’s actually happening. On the surface, it looks like a healthcare dispute. Two adults disagree about a medical appointment. Mediators who treat it that way will spend a

I remember a conversation with a mediator who told me, quietly and almost apologetically, that they felt unprepared to manage conversations where racism sat just beneath the surface. They were confident with commercial disputes, workplace clashes, and even heavy family breakdowns. But when an intake form hinted at racial tension, or when a participant made