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Welcome
to the website of
Mediation Services
Untangling
the knots of conflict
and re-weaving them into knots of understanding
and/or trust
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About
Pashta
Pashta
MaryMoon was trained in Mediation/Third-party
Intervention through the Institute for Conflict
Analysis and Management, and the
Justice Institute of B,C. (Victoria,
Canada); and is a general member of the South
Island Dispute Resolution Centre Society.Coming
from a childhood background of physical and verbal violence
and at least sometimes, seeing both 'sides of the issue'
she has always believed that there must be a healthier
and more appropriate way to resolve conflict; and that
creative, 'win-win' solutions are possible, given the
appropriate support.
Pashta
has been active in various social-concerns issues throughout
her life
including studying non-violence techniques with the
Movement
for a New Society (Philadelphia,
U.S.A.) in the 1970s, which was responsible for
many of the current innovations in mediation theory,
and eventually evolved into New
Society Publications and Training
for Change.She
has been an active member of the Religious
Society of Friends (Canadian
Yearly Meeting of Quakers)
a traditional "peace church"
since 1973; and has served the Ministry and Counsel
committee of the Vancouver
Island Monthly Meeting, and is the clerk
of the local Victoria Friends Meeting Memorials Committee.She
is also a Wiccan Elder/priestess; and co-wrote both
the Pagan sections of the chaplaincy handbook for Correction
Services Canada, and its Pagan response to
Restorative Justice.However,
she considers herself a Universalist, and has been involved
in several other spiritual movements
especially those that have an active involvement with
social-concerns issues.
Pashta
has an Honours degree in World Religions (with
a minor in Jungian Psychology): and much of her
research has been focused on new ways of understanding
the world we live in, and responding to its difficulties
in a more creative and collaborative way.She
had hoped to continue with a Masters degree in Chaplaincy
specifically in counselling re spiritual/pastoral issues
but was unable to because of a chronic illness.However,
she has been involved in a variety of kinds of pastoral
counselling/support
including working on the Royal
Jubilee Hospital pastoral care team (as
the first non-Christian), and being the co-director/Elder
of (now laid down) Pagan
Pastoral Outreach which focused on prison and
hospital ministry.She
was also the co-founder of Songs
of Passage (which developed
the original offers Bedside Singing program for patients
at the Victoria
Hospice unit ); and now offers Bedside Singing
support to both dying patients and birthing mothers
through the En~chanting
Beyond services.
Having
been involved in a variety of small non-profit and/or
social-change groups, Pashta is aware that much
of the paradigmatic change, re social issues, begins
in such small groups
and yet how easily interpersonal conflict can effect
the efficacy of the organization itself.Therefore,
she has a special commitment to supporting these
innovative groups by offering interpersonal mediation
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Pashta
has also had a life-long concern about how our culture
approaches the issue of death and how that effects our
approach to life.She
has worked with people with HIV/AIDS, and those dying
from other illnesses primarily in a pastoral capacity.Both
Songs of Passage and En~chanting
Beyond evolved from her passions both for helping
people die in a more dignified and natural way, and
for music as a singer/songwriter.However,
this concern extends to various other issues that relate
to 'end of life' choices
such as Death Midwifery/home funerals, green burials,
etc., as represented by the 'Death
and Dying' pages of Pagan
Pastoral Outreach.She
offers workshop on home funerals (caring for our own
dead at home) called "By My Own Heart and Hand".
She has also been part of the caregiving
team for those with end-stage dementia, and offers Death
Midwifery and 'end of life' consultation services through
Journeying
Beyond.
In the
process of her work with the dying, she became aware
of often serious interpersonal conflict arose as a family
was addressing the 'end of life' stages of their loved
one
conflicts that distracted from the family's ability
to address and/or honour the wishes of their dying member.The
process of dying is a very stressful one
often more for the family than the person dying: and
unless their loved one has left very specific instructions
(re will, advanced directives, funeral/memorial
arrangements, etc.), the family can be left with
a lot of very serious and complicated issues to deal
with at the last moment.
Given
that families now tend to live long distances from each
other, they may not have had the opportunity to develop
their own unique family way of dealing with conflicts
many of which can be avoided by living at a distance. Also
given the general (but changing)
cultural attitudes towards death
they may not have occasion to discuss their loved one's
specific wishes for both their 'end of life' stage and
arrangements after the death. Finally, sometimes
individual members of the family have been informed
of different wishes (and possibly at
different times in their loved one's life): and
this can evoke considerable conflict when trying to
honour contradictory requests.As
a result, they may be left with no clear instructions,
or have very different opinions as to what the dying
member's wishes might have been
yet have to make decisions very quickly.Pashta
believes that mediation can help the family members
resolve these differences, in a quicker and healthier
way than resorting to lawyers and the court system.
Although
supporting those who are dying and their family, and
small non-profit organizations are Pashta's primary
focus, she is happy to consider other situations that
could be resolved or enhanced by mediation.
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