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

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