The popular "Mediator's Handbook" presents a time-tested, adaptable model for helping people work through conflict. Extensively revised to incorporate recent practice and thinking, the accessible manual format lays out a clear structure for new and occasional mediators, while offering a detailed, nuanced resource for professionals. Starting with a new chapter on assessing conflict and bringing people to the table, the first section explains the process step-by-step, from opening conversations and exploring the situation, through the phases of finding resolution deciding on topics, reviewing options, and testing agreements. The "Toolbox" section details the concepts and skills a mediator needs in order to: Understand the conflict; Support the people; Facilitate the process; Guide decision-making. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on what the mediator can do or say NOW, and on the underlying principles and core methods that can help the mediator make wise choices. Long a popular course textbook for high schools, universities, and training programs, this Handbook is also a valued desk reference for professional mediators, and a practical guide for managers, organisers, teachers and anyone working with clients, customers, volunteers, committees or teams.

"Can you really make the classic book in its field even better? In this book, authors Jennifer Beer and Caroline Packard prove that, when it comes to mediation, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" This new edition of The Mediator's Handbook provides new tools, new scripts, and new frameworks that will assist experienced practitioners and novices alike. Based on up-to-date research foundations from anthropology, psychology, and behavioral neuroscience, the authors take us by the hand and lead us step-by-step through the mediation process, suggesting concrete strategies to help people in conflict work through difficult emotions to actionable ideas for resolving their disputes. Bravo!"
— G. Richard Shell, Thomas Gerrity Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of Business and author of Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People

"The fourth edition of The Mediator's Handbook continues to improve upon everything that made the original edition a success: user-friendly explanations for every step of the mediation process, starting with what mediation is, to dealing with the most difficult situations that can arise in the course of a dispute. While the Handbook presents itself as being for mediators, those who should have a copy of the Handbook on their shelf include lawyers representing clients in litigation, human resources executives, managers of complex international infrastructure projects, or school counselors dealing with difficult teenagers. In short, The Mediator's Handbook is a comprehensive and practical guide for anyone who regularly deals with conflict."
— Michael McIlwrath, co-author of International Arbitration and Mediation:A Practical Guide, and host of the podcast "International Dispute Negotiation"

"Plenty of mediation books will give you the kind of language ordinary mediators use - the same language we are used to hearing from other helping professions, such as lawyers, and therapists. What these authors let us in on - is the secret language of outstanding mediators. They generously share hundreds of examples of carefully chosen phrases mediators can use at every step that make the difference between knowing what needs to happen next in mediation, and being able to make it happen."
— Hideaki Irei, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Kyushu University

"The upgrades done to the 4th edition make it a VERY usable manual and I will most definitely recommend it to anyone looking for this kind of manual. When I run my course next year this will be THE manual I have students buy."
— Jonathon Rudy, Elizabethtown College, Global Peacemaking Scholar-in-Residence

"The Mediator's Handbook is the basic primer for anyone who is seriously interested in resolving conflicts constructively. I have used it in my classroom for the last twenty years.This new edition gives us even more insights and practical suggestions for how to deal with the complexity of disputes in many different kinds of situations. Beer, Packard and Stief are masters in the mediation field and have much to offer us. An essential addition to the current scholarship and practice."
— Susan Sgorbati, Jones Chair for Social Activism, and former Dean of Faculty, Bennington College

"The Mediator's Handbook continues to be solid, and speaks to the needs of the participants."
— Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Ph.D., International Peace and Conflict Resolution, School of International Service, American University

Dr. Jennifer E. Beer, PhD, combines mediation experience with her cultural anthropology background to lead courses and workshops in mediation, conflict resolution, and cross-cultural communication. She regularly teaches a negotiation course at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania). Author of the Mediator's Handbook and of Peacemaking in Your Neighborhood, she has mediated conflicts and facilitated meetings for communities and organizations for 30 years. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Caroline C. Packard, JD, is an organizational change and conflict response specialist and mediator with 30 years' experience in the field. A graduate of Yale College and NYU School of Law, and a former corporate litigator with extensive formal training in individual and group psychology, Caroline has a special interest in the evolutionary psychology of group conflict and cooperation. She provides mediation and conflict-resolution services and training to organizations, families, and family businesses. She lives in the United States

Eileen Stief developed the mediation process and principles documented in The Mediator's Handbook, and trained a generation of mediators to work with community, multi-party, and environmental disputes. Now retired, she led the Friends Conflict Resolution Program's experiment in community dispute settlement and later specialized in environmental mediation. She lives in the United States.

Elizabeth Elwood Gates provided the delightful cartoon illustrations in honor of her aunt, Ann Richan, who was a passionate champion of community mediation.