California Mental Health Law AttorneyAt the core, most legal issues involve: (1) a specific behavior or series of behaviors; (2) pre-existing expectations held by people adversely impacted by the specific behavior(s); and (3) conditioned responses of those adversely impacted to the specific behavior(s) in question. Stress typically results from these situations insofar as feelings of safety and predictability are […]
Below I have summarized five suggestions to help clients move more mindfully through the divorce process: Settle In contemporary American society, most of us are highly conditioned to avoid or turn away from difficult experiences, emotions, etc. The fracturing of a family unit or severance of a love relationship can precipitate fear about the future, […]
Most people seeking mediation services for the first time are doing so in search of less contentious, more cost-effective solutions to conflict. The threshold factors in assessing whether a particular situation is ripe for mediation are the readiness, willingness, and ability of all parties directly involved in the conflict to open and listen to divergent […]
Much of suffering can be tied to some deeply conditioned notion that we have some fundamental baseline of “happiness.” When some event, stimuli, or phenomenon is interpreted as “bad,” “unpleasant,” or “painful,” we almost instinctively engage strategies to obtain something we interpret as “good,” “pleasant,” or “pleasurable,” to return our condition to this baseline. Such […]
Mindfulness is especially valuable in conflict situations, or other situations that present challenges to central components of one’s perceived safety, self-concept, etc. One recent study by Natalia Karelaia, Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences at INSEAD in France, suggests four central ways in which mindfulness can foster improved decision-making; Framing the Decision: As Dr. Karelaia explains, […]
The mind seems to incessantly scan the environment for problems to solve. This active intellectual engagement with our environment likely served to ensure our survival as a species over millions of years as immediate physical dangers routinely confronted us in more primitive times. The mind seeks problems to solve largely within the parameters of cause […]
The issue of spousal support, especially when involving highly disparate incomes of a separating couple, is one of the most challenging areas of the divorce process. Underlying the complexity are fundamental notions of “fairness” that may significantly differ for each spouse. To successfully deal with the issue of spousal support in a way that minimizes negative […]
In working with clients to break through learned conditioning and habitual reactions that have led to, or exacerbated, legal disputes, holistic law strives to tap into the inner wisdom of participants as the primary source of optimal solutions. In orienting the identification of solutions towards clients, holistic law presents a fundamental challenge to the entrenched […]
At its core, mindfulness refers to a felt sense of present-moment experience. This felt sense fundamentally differs from time caught in thought-driven judgements, interpretations, stories, fears, expectations, etc. These latter mental formations though “real” are far more than often not “true” and often serve to disconnect one from present-moment experience – the only experience within […]
Defensive and aggressive reactions to conflict most often arise because of an inability to be heard and understood. At the heart of most conflict lies some core issue that, if recognized, acknowledged, and explored, would provide the seed for peaceful, optimal resolution, truly in the best interests of the parties and more broad societal context […]