with Dr Katherine Johnson
Friday, 06 October 2023 | 12pm – 1pm AEDT| Online 

How law and psychology combine in mediation to effectively handle loss and create a humane civil society.

In this enlightening webinar session, join Dr. Katherine Johnson as she delves into the intricate interplay of law and psychology in the realm of mediation. With a focus on effectively handling loss and fostering a more compassionate civil society, Dr. Johnson will share insights drawn from her extensive research and expertise.

Thesis Inquiry:
‘Why do people go either to a psychologist or to a lawyer if not to redress the impact of the grief they feel from some perceived or real loss?’

PhD in Law - Dispute Resolution (2015):
Dr. Katherine Johnson's profound exploration culminated in her groundbreaking PhD thesis. Through a compelling social constructionist approach, she claims that the very reason for conducting any mediation is the quest for MEANING by the parties to make sense of their loss. Dr. Katherine Johnson further underscores that the quest for meaning is the theory behind the practice of any mediation. That is, she claim that a social constructionist approach to mediation highlights the significance of loss and leads to her conclusion that loss fuels the meaning we give to Life.

About the speaker

Dr Katherine Johnson
Director Unilegal Consulting Pty.Ltd., President ADRA, Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) NSW Department of Communities and Justice

Dr. Katherine Johnson is an internationally and nationally accredited mediator, serving on various mediation panels including the World Mediation Organisation (WMO), the International Mediation Institute (IMI), Papua New Guinea Supreme Court (PNG), the Supreme Court of NSW, the Personal Injury Commission of NSW to name a few. She is a barrister of the NSW Bar since 1993, a practising research psychologist from 1984, a Guardian Ad Litem with NSW Communities and Justice since 2016 and a trainer/assessor of mediators since 2000. Katherine’s extensive practice in Psychology, Law and Education has combined insights from the field of Loss and grief in Psychology to be applied to the practical resolution of disputes in Law, culminating in her PhD in Law from Macquarie University in 2015. Her interdisciplinary approach transforms mediation into a process of social constructionism in action where parties constructively co-respond to their losses by co-creating new meaning for their sense of social justice, thereby becoming agents for social change.