We all lose our temper sometimes. A flash of irritation, a rising voice, one word too many — and, almost at once, that little voice whispering: "I shouldn't have reacted like that." Many of us have the feeling that we have "an anger problem," and that feeling almost always comes wrapped in a little shame. How do we cope when anger overwhelms us? How do we say what's wrong without hurting the people we love? And above all, how do we stop feeling swept away by an emotion that,

It’s 9:30 in the evening. The children are asleep, the kitchen is tidy, and there you both are in the living room, each on your phone. There were words again tonight — or worse, there were none at all. And somewhere between the tiredness and the knot in your stomach, a sentence takes shape, the one we don’t always dare say out loud: “we can’t go on like this.” When a couple reaches that point, the first idea that comes to mind is almost always the same: “maybe we should see s

In my previous article, I explored the difficulty of finding the right words when our emotions take over during a conflict with someone important to us. We were then dealing with active conflict, the kind that explodes and hurts through an excess of words. Sometimes, after all those harsh, sometimes exaggerated, and often biting words, a silence settles in—one that is almost more daunting. Other times, silence arrives without any conflict having erupted out loud; it is then a

During a conflict, a difficult discussion, or a tense situation with loved ones or those we interact with, expressing ourselves clearly is often complicated. How to find the right words to make sure we are understood? How can we share our emotions and needs without blaming the other person? How can we stay calm in order to maintain a constructive dialogue? The invisible barriers of our communication Sometimes, we lack the words, so we either remain silent or use inadequate on

Understand what Restorative Justice is, and its benefits when doing a victim/offender mediation.

At first glance, when we think of mediation, and helping professions in general, we mostly think of a face-to-face meeting, around a table with glasses of water and a plant in the corner. The pandemic has changed everything and propelled us into a virtual world that we would not have, or hardly, imagined in this profession before 2020. When it became impossible for us to go to work and receive people in the office, we were faced with a choice: stop offering mediation services

The term "mediation" is often misused, applied in various contexts to refer to practices that sometimes have nothing in common (cultural mediation, environmental mediation, judicial mediation, etc.). Even when there is a general agreement that mediation is "a conflict management process where an impartial third party guides the parties in dialogue," many differences remain in how mediation is practiced. Indeed, there are various approaches to mediation, ranging from legalisti