Rochester welcomes the Gandhi Institute for Peace and Non-Violence. It joins the other institutions in Rochester that are devoted to peaceful resolution of difficult emotional issues.

For the past six years, the Collaborative Law Association of the Rochester Area, a not-for-profit group of attorneys, therapists, mediators, and financial specialists, has been working to resolve disputes respectfully and avoid the polarization and objectification that occurs in the court system.

Collaborative Law is a process to resolve family matters such as divorce, child custody, support, and equitable distribution resolved by a team approach. The parties and their attorneys agree to use other specialists as needed to resolve issues that they are facing.

The team can include attorneys trained in dispute resolution, child specialists, financial specialists, and mediators. The Collaborative process works with the couple to resolve disputes without the pain and expense of court battles. In litigation, parties can get further polarized by trying to prove fault and blame, and they lose sight of the fact that they are bound by their need to raise their children.

Arun Gandhi says, "There is nothing we can't accomplish, no problem so great, that we can't learn something from sitting down and talking to one another." This is the fundamental belief of Collaborative Law in resolving the most common threat to peace in our homes. Disputes can be settled in a peaceful manner without the passive violence of the adversary court system.

For more information about Collaborative Law, people can visit the website at www. nycollaborativelaw.com to learn about the process and the 80 professionals who have been trained to help people through one of the most difficult and painful events in a peaceful and respectful manner.

Michael T. Hagelberg, Hagelberg & Bezinque LLP, Linden Oaks, Penfield