What is a Conflict Counselor?

A Conflict Counselor is a professional consultant specializing in helping individuals and groups resolve conflicts and disputes through negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution techniques traditionally used in legal disputes. This role is crafted to bring the expertise of conflict resolution to typical, non-legal disputes, making professional assistance available for resolving persistent conflicts that harm relationships more than they benefit. The concept of conflict counseling emerged from the realization that many disputes do not require a full-blown legal intervention but rather a focused, efficient, and cost-effective method of resolution that can be provided outside of the courtroom.

Key aspects of what a Conflict Counselor does include:

• Application of Expert Techniques: Employing negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution strategies to everyday conflicts, thereby providing a professional level of assistance usually reserved for business, industry, and litigation settings to the average citizen.

• Focus on Resolution: Aimed at resolving specific issues without causing further harm to the relationship involved, whether it be among family members, couples, or within professional settings.

• Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness: Offering an efficient and cost-effective means of resolving conflicts, distinct from more expensive and time-consuming legal processes or traditional therapy.

• Session Structure: Conflict counseling sessions can range from brief phone consultations to a few office or home visits, depending on the conflict's complexity. These sessions are designed to be short and focused on the particular issue at hand.

• Role of the Counselor: Acting as an impartial party, the conflict counselor is uniquely qualified to cut through artificial barriers to resolution, helping the parties understand and appreciate each other's concerns, thereby arriving at a mutually satisfactory resolution.

The creation of conflict counseling responds to a gap in the existing support systems for individuals and groups experiencing conflict, providing a specialized service that addresses the need for a pragmatic, resolution-focused approach to disputes that do not necessarily benefit from traditional legal or therapeutic interventions.