Mediation is a confidential peace-making exercise (not peacekeeping).  It does not entertain submission or acquiescing by either person in the conflict.  Mediation seeks to discover the real needs and interests of all the participants, facilitated by a skilled, trained mediator.  This empowers the parties, through listening and creative problem-solving techniques, to discover new ways of seeing the situation and resolving their own issues. 

Where relationships need to be preserved at work or in families, mediate first.