Meredith L. Richardson is a conflict management specialist. Initially trained as an attorney, she has developed into a mediator, guardian ad litem, facilitator, anger management instructor, and parenting coordinator. As a litigator, she found that the people that came to her often were quite skilled at fighting, but seemed to have lost the ability to get along. She was concerned that she was only teaching them to fight better, and that didn't seem like a good thing long-term.
Meredith tries to practice transformative mediation, where the mediator follows the parties, rather than leading them. In transformative mediation, the mediator remains humble, recognizing that the parties know best what is in their best interest. Sometimes additional information may be needed, but it is ultimately the parties' decision as to what will work best for them. Rather than looking for ways to settle the matter, the mediator looks for calls for recognition or empowerment from the parties. The goal is to have a discussion in which both sides feel supported and empowered and are able to gain a clearer understanding of their position and the other person's. A mediation can be successful with no settlement reached.
The transformative principles can be equally effective in a group setting. Meredith has facilitated group discussions using the transformative model.
Meredith's work as a mediator and facilitator provides a good balance to her work as a guardian ad litem, where she is called upon to make recommendations as to what is in the best interest of children. As a guardian ad litem, she strives to treat each parent with respect. She looks at what the situation is, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each parent, and determines what is in the children's best interest in that situation. As she follows the parties, there is no cookie cutter formula to be applied. Each case is unique and is decided on a case by case basis.
Meredith believes strongly in people's ability to change. In teaching anger management, she stresses the power of choice. She works with the teens to have them recognize that it is their choice what they do with their anger, and it is also their choice whether and to what extent they get angry at all. Meredith provides them with tools to help them change their view of the world, in addition to tools to help them go from angry to calm in a functional way.
All of these skills are brought to bear in her work as a parenting coordinator. In that capacity, she helps parents resolve disputes as to parent-child contact after the initial divorce judgment has been entered. She will initially engage the parents in mediation, but will make a decision herself if they are not able to come to a mediated agreement. She may also provide some conflict coaching to one or both parents to help them to see what their role might be in the situation, as well as providing them with techniques that may help in working with the other parent.
Meredith and Lisa Levinson will be presenting a workshop entitled "Transformative Practice in the Maine Court System" on December 11, 2008, at the Annual Conference of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. They previously presented this workshop in August 2008 at the Third International Conference on Transformative Mediation in Santa Barbara, California. The focus is on some of the challenges mediators face when attempting to mediate in a transformative manner in court, including time constraints, attorney expectations, party expectations, court and supervisor expectations, personality conflicts between attorneys, domestic violence issues, mental health issues, and more.
Meredith has always enjoyed learning, whether in a traditional setting or from those around her. She is intrigued by different cultures, personalities, languages, etc. Meredith graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1987. She received her BA in Russian, with a minor in French, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. While at Penn, she studied abroad in France (at La Sorbonne and at L'Institut de Touraine) and in Russia (at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow). She also reestablished family ties in Norway. After graduation from Penn, Meredith moved out to San Francisco, where she decided that she would rather be the boss than be bossed, and started law school in 1992. Meredith received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law in 1994.
Meredith has a long tradition of volunteering and helping others. She instinctively reaches out to those in need. Meredith is currently co-facilitating a leadership and wellness program for girls called Full of Ourselves. She is on the Board for Sweeter, an organization that does a great deal for the children of Maine. Meredith was a Corporator for Sweetser beginning in 2001 before being promoted to the Board. She is on the Advisory Committee for Parent Resource Center's Family Access Program, which provides supervised contact for parents with children. She was President of the Board of Family Care Services 2006-2007, which preceded the PRC program. Meredith is on the Executive Board of the Maine Guardian Ad Litem Institute. She also serves as President of her condominium association. In recent years, she was on the Board for the Warner House, an historical brick home in Portsmouth, NH. She was also President of the Friends of the Portsmouth Public Library. Meredith has also volunteered at an animal shelter, at a legal aid clinic, on a domestic violence hotline, at a juvenile detention center, and at a nursing home.