ABSTRACT
This method is very controversial in mediation circles and is especially frowned upon by those who practise facilitative mediation-mainly because they feel that a mediator should stay impersonal to the dispute and not take sides. Facilitative mediation grew up in the era of volunteer dispute resolution centres, in which the volunteer mediators were not required to have substantive expertise concerning the area of the dispute, and in which most often there were no lawyers present. From the background of facilitative mediation and evaluative mediation another method developed and this has come to be known as Transformative Mediation. Robert Bush and Joseph Folger developed transformative mediation in their book entitled The Promise of Mediation. Just as problem-solving mediation involves three typical patterns of mediator conduct, transformative mediation does as well. In some ways, the values of transformative mediation mirror those of early facilitative mediation, in its interest in empowering parties and transformation.
