“Transformative mediation” is based on two fundamental principles: empowerment—regaining the capacity to act deliberately and articulate one’s perspective, and recognition—parties becoming more open, attentive, and understanding of each other’s perspectives. See bushChangingQualityConflict2012.
The mediator must be trained to listen for empowerment and recognition opportunities, and support shifts without steering outcomes (which is very difficult). See folgerTransformativeMediationThirdparty1996 for 10 hallmarks of successful transformative mediation in practice.
The thinkers behind TM assessed its impact, and identified key failures to be lack of professional training, institutional support for training, and the label. They also emphasize that the goal of TM was to influence how society approaches conflict itself. See folgerTransformativeMediationSelfAssessment2014.