Satisfying Settlements That Last.TM
Managing Toxic Situations.
Services
Mediation and Arbitration
Mediating and arbitrating disputes for businesses, contractors, subcontractors, homeowners, and developers, as well as buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords, and families.
Consulting
Consulting with businesses, attorneys and individuals about effective strategies for dealing with problematic people, and with parents for managing interactions with a custody evaluator.
Testimony
Providing expert testimony about the sources of conflict and how to mitigate it. Contact Steven to learn more.
About Steven
Steven Wolhandler, J.D., M.A., L.P.C., is an attorney and psychotherapist with decades of experience in dispute resolution and psychology.
An attorney since 1984, Steven is a graduate of Cornell Law School where he was an Editor of the Law Review. He practiced law in a large Wall Street law firm and as a soloist in a small New Mexican town. Steven began his doctoral clinical psychology training in 1988, taking a leave of absence in 1990. He formed Creative Conflict Resolutions, LLC in 1999 and received a Masters in Counseling Psychology in 2002.
Steven has been resolving business and family disputes outside the courts since 1993 (as a mediator, arbitrator, consultant, custody evaluator and parental decision-maker). He combines his legal training and experience with his deep understanding of the psychological basis of high-conflict disputes. He is the author of Protecting Yourself from Emotional Predators: Neutralize the Users, Abusers and Manipulators Hidden Among Us, which presents a new paradigm for understanding toxic people and relationships.
What Clients Say
DS & RS
Before we hired Steven, we'd spent $68,600 on lawyers and $13,800 on two other mediators over 16 months, and got worse fighting. Steven stepped into a totally impossible mess of hatred and mistrust that we'd bought with all that money, and he turned it completely around. Got us in agreement. And he did the impossible for less money than either of the other…mediators took from us…
RF
Steven I just want to say “thanks” because you have always been very helpful. … I’d like to meet with you consistently for a long time because you’re very good at what you do.
BG
We salvaged our [business] partnership! Unbelievable! Steven saved us tens of thousands of dollars and months of stupid legal wrangling.
NA
That's what I love most about you: You don't say shit you don't mean.
SV
Many have helped, your help stands out…I learned a lot in this process.
PD & VD
We used several well known arbitrators over a few years before we found you. You were the first person involved with our situation who really understood what was going on beneath the surface and you had what it took to hold the line and get us to peace. We wish we’d found you at the start.
ST
Steven Wolhandler is phenomenal at what he does. He's in Boulder; you might want to give him a call 720 270-0070. He can help you bring some perspective on what your boundaries are and how to keep your boundaries set.
BM
You pack a lot of good stuff in a couple of hours. thanks. The elephant is off my back.
NA
I find you useful. You have a genuine way of seeing through and cutting through the bullshit. And you do it gently - a gentle way of verbalizing it so people can hear.
EE
You're great at what you do!
DFC
The best thing I've ever done was to sign you on as our mediator/arbitrator…you cut through all the self-serving crap of family law experts and put that whole system out of work. No more tension. No more nastiness. No more useless experts.
BT
Steven knows how to get to the root of a problem. His keen and deep observations allowed me to clear away the irrelevant and find a path that honors all concerned.
LS
You are good. You are really good. If [my choices were only to meet with] the other "professionals" I would not be going to see anyone.
EG
Thanks so much for your help over the past month. We have all benefited from your perspective to tap into the wisdom we own but weren't accessing.
SM
You were sensitive and insightful. Mediation wasn't super easy for me but it was so much better than the times we'd slugged it out in Court. I had no idea it could do that. Even my lawyer was impressed.
KC
I'm really glad you were able to get us to settle in a way that we can actually keep doing business. Thanks for helping us re-establish our business trust and respect.
TA
You took an impossible situation…and turned it around. I don't know how you got that [guy] to get real, but you did and you saved both of us from the train wreck lawsuit he was dragging us into. I'm blown away by what you did! He even said he was glad you'd set things straight
RM
A pin-headed guy who hires someone else to change his light bulb would have missed the point - or cost us a freakin' fortune to figure out what the hell was really going on, what this whole damn project was about.
DH
I sure didn't like everything you said, but you were fair and the things you recommended us to do are going to make things better. Thanks for taking the time to look at everything.
JO
Well, the evaluation is clear. It gets right to the bottom of everything and explains why there's been so much problem.
TT
It was thorough and complete. It didn't shy away from the hard truth. It named stuff that everyone else has been too scared or too blind to name.
FS
I thank you so much for all of your guidance and good advice, Steven. Your straight talk and honest feedback really led us in the direction of happiness that – at the time – I still didn’t have the courage or insight to realize both B and I deserved.”
DS & RS
Steven stepped into a totally impossible mess of hatred and mistrust that we’d bought with all that money, and he turned it completely around. Got us in agreement. And he did the impossible for less money than either of the other clueless mediators took from us
Media
Protecting Yourself
From Emotional Predators
Neutralize the Users, Abusers and Manipulators Hidden Among Us
For Emotional Predators, life is a strategy game to dominate and control, and you are either a player to be defeated or a game piece to be used. Without empathy or remorse, they’ll ruin your life, and traditional approaches will make things worse. You’ll learn 5 essential steps for protecting yourself, valuable guidance for safe relationships and over 30 specific defensive tactics for
Distinguishing Romance
From Intimacy
Restoring Your
Self-esteem
Removing Your Emotional
Triggers
Using Gratitude And
Humor
Regaining Control In
Family Court
Breaking An Addiction To An
Emotional Predator
Re-balancing Power In
Your Favor
Adjusting Beliefs That
Keep You Trapped
Screening Professionals To
Be Sure They Can Help
Responding Strategically,
Instead Of Reacting Emotionally
Playing Their Games Better Than They Do –
Without Becoming Like Them