Arabella Tresilian – About me

Arabella Tresilian MAHons PGCE FRSA
Dialogue Facilitator, Mediator & Conflict Coach:

• Mediation, fully-accredited by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR)
• Dispute resolution for Employment, Workplace, Civil, Commercial & Community cases
• Specialist in health and social care, including mental health, autism & disabilities

Download a copy of my one-page profile here: Arabella Tresilian Mediator Profile 2020

Overview

I am an independent consultant specialising in dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution and partnership-building. My business development experience, studies in educational leadership and experience in dispute resolution combine effectively to allow me to support organisations, employees, families and individuals in finding win-win resolutions within complex scenarios.

I have 20 years experience working in a strategic capacity for public, private and third sector organisations in the UK and overseas, and I have specialist consulting experience in the fields of sustainability, education and health/social care. I have also taught and managed at secondary level internationally and in the independent sector in the UK, and founded/directed a theatre company devoted to promoting the understanding of mental health and social exclusion.

I am a CEDR-Accredited Mediator qualified to undertake employment, workplace, commercial, civil and community mediation. In 2017 I became a CEDR Associate with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), joining their world-renowned training faculty.

In the community setting, I am a Certificated Mediator with Resolve West (previously Bristol Mediation) resolving neighbour disputes and hate crime cases. I am also the cofounder of Equisphere Employability and a workplace mental health trainer for Bath Mind.

In the healthcare setting, I am a Quality Improvement Coach with the Q Community (NHS Improvement & Health Foundation) and a Public & Patient Involvement advisor for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). I am a co-author of Living Well Dying Well’s internal training manual on Advance Care Planning. I am also a trained Mental Health First Aider and have DBS clearance. I abide by the European Code of Conduct for Mediators and am fully insured as a mediator, trainer,educator, mentor and coach.

Professional Experience & Skills Overview

Facilitation and Organisational Dialogue

• Strategic development and team coaching in the workplace
• Communications and engagement for public-facing organisations
• Design and delivery of multi-organisational commercial partnerships
• Stakeholder engagement for effective policy development

Conflict Intervention and Negotiation

• Interpersonal mediation and conflict resolution for workplace contexts
• Conflict coaching and mediation for highly-escalated community conflicts
• Brokerage of interorganisational partnerships for socio-economic benefit

Leadership

• Design / delivery of Leadership Skills for Employability training for University of Bath
• Postgraduate certificate in Educational Leadership & Management (2011)
• Founder of three social enterprises and experienced team leader and manager

International Competence

• Partnerships negotiator for European Green Capital 2015
• Merger & Acquisition consultancy – UK/Spain
• Educator in vocational, business and enterprise skills – Coimbatore, India

Training and Coaching

• Experienced teacher, trainer, mentor and coach specialising in communication
• Mentor to young leaders in enterprise on Future Talent programme
• Mental Health First Aider and specialist trainer in mental health with Mind Charity

My style and my specialisms

I came to the practice of Conflict Resolution and Mediation through two distinct routes. One was through doing management consulting in the public and private sectors, and coming to understand just how much stress, inefficiency and sadness arises from communication and conflict difficulties in the workplace. The other route was through being a patient, a parent of children with disabilities and a family carer, and witnessing how difficult it can be to make plans for the future when the present involves difficult discussions and many people.

So I specialise in making sure that people feel comfortable with the process they undertake with me, and that it leads them towards feeling comfortable and confident about their future. I aim to be thoroughly supportive, reassuring and encouraging at all times.

My professional work and personal experience in health and social care mean that I am particularly experienced in supporting people who are living with any form of illness, disability, mental health condition or life-limiting condition. I have particular personal experience of working with people who are deaf or hearing impaired, on the autism spectrum, experiencing mental illness and living with dementia or stroke.

Why I love being a mediator

I came to mediation through a confluence of circumstances which made me think, ‘There must be a better way for people to deal with their difficulties than to threaten legal action, or refuse to engage in communication at all!’ I realised that a great deal of my management consultancy work was really… conflict resolution. It gave me such pleasure and relief when long-held rifts within and between teams melted away after some good, authentic communication. This piqued my interest to find out more about the art of conflict resolution, and I did my first certificated training, and started practising as a community mediator. Later I qualified as a civil and employment mediator, and have been mediating ever since.

It’s astonishing to witness people’s lives turn from a turmoil of distressing, intractable ‘stuckness’, to a new phase in which, for example, neighbours can conceive of greeting each other again; or work colleagues re-establish trust between each other after maybe years of mistrust, stress and non-communication. Mediation takes empathy, patience and persistence, and it is a skill I will develop and hone endlessly over years to come, but its core aspect is a belief that people really can find peace again, given the right support and a safe space to explore options for settling differences. Facilitating such processes is a real honour. Nothing beats the sight of former disputants smiling, shaking hands, or even (more often than you would think) hugging, at the end of a mediation.