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The articles in this issue of the journal cover a wide range of conflict intervention approaches and demonstrate the reflective, thoughtful and energetic exploration of their work by practitioners in the field. Whatling explores approaches to working with high conflict, a challenging practice for many mediators. During a conflict, defensive decision-making reinforces high conflict, so that the mediator must do as much as possible to defuse this defensiveness in order to assist the parties in making their own decisions. As well as offering many practice principles for a constructive mediation conversation, Whatling urges practitioners to be mindful and hold a constant internal reflexive dialogue. These, he holds, are crucial in working with those in high conflict.