What I’ve Been Reading

I bought this book expecting more specific content about different aspects of psychology and their relationship to mediation. It doesn’t really include this information, rather it provides a broad overview about how psychological, existential, and phenomenological thought apply to mediation practice. What the book does provide, however, is a very nuanced description of mediation, from […]

As I’ve been putting the finishing touches on our new Managing Emotions in Conflict online course, this book has become my essential reference source. The book explains complex concepts in simple language, with many practical (and often entertaining) examples. The book will challenge many things that you thought you knew about emotions, and how they

The Nagoski sisters wrote this book for any woman who has felt overwhelmed and exhausted by everything she had to do, and yet still worried she was not doing “enough”. Sound familiar? With backgrounds as a sex educator and a choral conductor, they might seem unlikely experts on stress. However, what they bring to the

This book is a cross between a dictionary of emotion-related words and a book of poetry. Arranged in alphabetical order, it presents a sometimes whimsical description and historical overview of 156 emotion concepts, some well-known (like Anger) and others less common and no longer in common usage (like Acedia). Each entry is completely different in

This book is a terrific introduction to integrating the body into the work we do. It is well written, provides easy to understand information about research on somatic…and includes many very practical activities to do yourself and to use with individuals and groups in coaching or facilitation. There’s also an impressive list of video links

When Stories Clash: Addressing Conflict with Narrative Mediation by Gerald Monk and John Winslade In this short book, Monk and Winslade provide an overview of how they use narrative mediation to help people in conflict separate themselves from their conflict stories and to develop a new, joint story of the relationship they would prefer. Narrative

The Storytelling Animal: How stories make us human by Jonathan Gottschall This book explains how humans are natural storytellers – in fact, storytelling may be one of the essential things that makes us human! Gottschall draws on research in neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology to show how fundamental storytelling is in shaping our beliefs, behaviours

Farsighted: How we make the decisions that matter the most, by Steve Johnson This book is a brilliant exploration about decision making. I love it on so many levels: it provides some very practical tools and strategies for making complex decisions; it discusses the importance of both science and story (including the benefits of reading

Iyengar rose to fame during her doctoral program when she conducted what is now a very well known study in which she set up jam tasting stations in supermarkets. The number of jams on display to taste ranged from 6 to 24 jars. Her research found that when there were more than 7 choices on

This book explores the concept of choice, and the paradox it can create. When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable, and as our choices expand so does our sense of autonomy, control and liberation. Choice improves the quality of our lives (and, side note, our capacity to manage conflict). But Schwartz cautions that