Things will get fraught and emotional from time to time, and we will see in the next chapter that this is an important part of the process. As the mediator, you need to maintain a sense of calm and manage your own emotions and the process so that the emotions on display do not derail the process. It is also important to ensure that the parties do not become overly stressed to the point that their ability to communicate, listen, and think logically is impaired.

There are some fascinating studies about how one person's mood can affect others. For example, psychologists Howard Freidman and Ronald Riggio found that when a group of people are in close proximity and do not speak to each other, their mood and physiology will quickly start to align with the person in the group who is the most facially expressive. The rate of breathing and heart rates of the others in the group will start to align within a few minutes. Similarly, Caroline Bartel and Richard Saavedra...