Teahouse Media | Promoting Peaceful Resolution of Conflict

In Robert O’Donnell’s inspired training course in settlement advocacy, he mentions the ritual of meeting over a cup of tea to begin the process of ice-breaking, which leads to a willingness to negotiate and reconcile previous differences. The idea echoed Clavell’s gripping account of a tea ceremony in the classic novel Shogan. In the historical ceremony, a precise ritual is engaged in order to clear the mind of all extraneous concerns, allowing participants to become fully present in the presence of one another. This ritual has obvious parallels to aspects of mediation and reconciliation, in which we engage a ritual or process that allows parties to step out of their normal routine in order to come together to share heartfelt concerns and resolve differences.

Thus, the idea of Teahouse Media was born: a company that would explore and celebrate the rituals and processes of coming together in a safe place to negotiate conflicting concerns, resolve differences, and reconcile broken relationships.