Today we conclude our blog series on A Framework for Trauma-Informed Mediation: A Heart and Mind Approach to Conflict Resolution by Michael Saini, Raheena Lalani Dahya & Shely Polak (Saini, Lalani Dahya & Polak, 2025).
Even with the best prepared client, trauma can surface during mediation. When it does, mediators and the parties lawyers face a critical ethical and practical question: how to respond without derailing the process or causing harm.
Understanding Trauma Activation
Trauma activation occurs when a current interaction triggers memories or sensations associated with past harm. These may arise from words, tone, posture, or even the mediation setting. Saini, Lalani Dahya, and Polak explain:
Activation causes the body to return to the fight, flight, freeze, flop, flock, or fawn reactions common to traumatic situations. (2025 at 427)
Signs of activation may include sudden agitation, incoherent storytelling, memory lapses, withdrawal, or agreeing to terms previously opposed (2025 at 429–430). Crucially, individuals in this state cannot access their prefrontal cortex, the brain’s decision-making center. As Saini, Lalani Dahya, and Polak observe:
Informed consent and self-determination can only be achieved when a person works from a neurobiological state where they can access their pre-frontal cortex. (2025 at 428)
The Mediator’s Response
When trauma activation arises, mediators have several options:
- Pause the session to allow self-regulation.
- Shift into caucus to reduce immediate stressors.
- Co-regulate through calm presence, voice modulation, and reassurance.
- Terminate the session and refer to support services when safety cannot be restored.
These are not therapeutic interventions but ethical safeguards. Mediators are not therapists, their duty is to create a process where parties can negotiate from a position of agency and clarity.
The Role of Lawyers
For lawyers, recognizing when their client is dysregulated (in a state where emotions, or other responses, are poorly controlled, extreme, or inconsistent with a situation, making it difficult to manage) is equally important. Pushing forward when a client is shut down or escalated risks invalid agreements and professional liability. Lawyers can support the process by:
- Preparing clients for potential triggers.
- Encouraging breaks when needed.
- Advocating for process adjustments in collaboration with the mediator.
Toward an Ethical, Compassionate Practice
The trauma-informed mediator embodies an ethic of humility and attunement. As Saini, Lalani Dahya, and Polak note:
There’s always a reasonable reason for the unreasonable behavior. (2025 at 426)
By reframing reactivity as rooted in trauma, mediators and lawyers can foster compassion without sacrificing rigor.
For the legal community, trauma-informed mediation is not a niche innovation but a necessary evolution. It equips practitioners to engage with clients as whole people whose histories, emotions, and vulnerabilities shape their participation. Done well, it not only resolves disputes but also promotes healing, resilience, and justice.
Thanks for reading and have a great Friday!
Find Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series here: