Hello, I'm Irene Grindell
Mediator, trainer and coach. I help people talk to each other again.
How I got here
I have spent 27 years sitting in rooms with people who have stopped speaking to each other. Some were neighbours, some were colleagues, some were families, and a few were young people caught up in gangs. What I learned in all of those rooms is the same thing: most people do not want a fight. They want to be heard, and they want a way forward.
I started out in 1999 as a volunteer mediator with the Tower Hamlets Mediation Service in London, working on community conflict. I went on to work as a caseworker, a trainer and then Director of the service, where I recruited, trained and supervised volunteer mediators and led the whole organisation. Today I still manage the Tower Hamlets Mediation Project.
What I do
Mediation
I help people in dispute have the conversation they have been avoiding, in a calm and structured setting. I work across workplace, family, civil and commercial, and community disputes.
Qualifications
- Postgraduate Advanced Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Mediation Studies, Birkbeck, University of London (2007)
- Distinction in National Workplace Mediation, TCM Group (2011)
- Practical Team Conferencing and Facilitation Skills, TCM Group (2010)
- Transformational Life Coaching, Animas School of Coaching (2010 to 2011)
- Master Practitioner in NLP and Master NLP Coach, Helford 2000
- Civil and Commercial Mediation, 5-day accredited, Phoenix Dispute Solutions Ltd (2021)
- Skills of Mediation, 6-day accredited, MII (2016)
Training
I train mediators and teams through Irene Grindell Resolutions, and I am an Associate Trainer with Phoenix Dispute Solutions Ltd.
Recognition and writing
- National Mediators Award, Community Mediation (2016)
- The Big 3 for Mediators, UK Mediation Journal, Issue 10 (2020)
- First rule of fight club: don't talk about fight club!, UK Mediation Journal, Issue 7 (2018)
- Chapter 8, Dealing with Conflict, in Supercharged Teams, Pearson (2021, co-authored)
Coaching
I am a conflict coach and a certified transformational life coach, and a Master Practitioner in NLP. I use ideas from Cognitive Behavioural Coaching, Transactional Analysis, Nonviolent Communication and NLP, with insight from neuroscience, to help people understand and shift the patterns that keep a conflict going.
Not sure where to start?