Megan Hunter
Co-Founder & CEO of the High Conflict Institute & founder of ConflictInfluencer.com
Megan Hunter is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the High Conflict Institute and founder of ConflictInfluencer.com, both established in collaboration with Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq., the originator of High Conflict Personality Theory.
Drawing on eight years with the Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts, as the Family Law Specialist, and five years with the Dawes County Attorney’s Office in Nebraska, Megan brings deep expertise in navigating judicial and legal systems.
As a strategic leader, Megan identifies gaps and unmet needs within systems—from courts and legal practices to workplaces, customer service, and family settings—and drives innovative adaptations of the High Conflict Institute’s groundbreaking approaches to meet those diverse challenges. Through this work, she equips professionals across industries with practical, research-informed tools for managing high-conflict situations and improving outcomes. She has trained judges, attorneys, and other professionals throughout the United States and in eight other countries.
Through ConflictInfluencer.com, Megan extends this work beyond professional contexts—adapting HCI’s methods and insights to help individuals, co-parents, and families navigate high-conflict relationships in their personal lives. By bridging the gap between professional strategies and everyday experiences, she empowers people to apply effective conflict-resolution skills in real-world situations.
Widely recognized as the Conflict Influencer™, Megan empowers professionals to navigate and positively influence even the most entrenched disputes. She co-hosts the highly rated podcast It’s All Your Fault! with Bill Eddy, where they share actionable insights for managing conflict in both personal and professional life. She is the co-author of several non-fiction books, including BIFF at Work, The High-Conflict Co-Parenting Survival Guide, and Dating Radar.
Day 1 - Megan Hunter | Plenary
The Conflict Brain: Key Skills for Working with It
Who it will interest
Mediators, family lawyers, judges, CAFCASS professionals, therapists, social workers and educators
What this session is about
Megan explains what conflict does to the brain and why reasoning, empathy and compromise often collapse under stress. She reframes escalation as a threat response and shows how professional tone, structure and predictability can reduce defensiveness and help people regain the capacity to think.
This session provides a practical neuroscience foundation for working with high conflict dynamics across mediation, court and safeguarding contexts.
Key themes
Threat activation and dysregulation
Why logic fails under stress
The difference between reaction and regulation
How professionals lower threat, not raise it
Why skills matter more than insight in high conflict
What delegates will gain
A clear model of the conflict brain in practice
Practical de-escalation strategies that restore cognitive capacity
Greater confidence staying regulated in difficult interactions
A framework that supports trauma aware, safety focused work
How it connects to other sessions
This complements Bill Eddy’s child lens by explaining the adult conflict engine behind what children experience. It sets up Day Two’s skills-based application, especially Megan’s B4 Skills and BIFF and Bill’s New Ways for Mediation.
Day 2 - Megan Hunter | Breakout
Help Parents Become Conflict Influencers: The B4 Skills™ and BIFF®
Who it will interest
Mediators, family lawyers, parenting coordinators, judges, CAFCASS professionals and coaches
What this session is about
When conflict continues after separation, children are exposed not because parents lack love but because they lack effective skills. Megan introduces the B4 Skills™ and BIFF® frameworks, two widely used tools for managing high conflict communication.
Rather than attempting to change personalities or force cooperation, these tools help parents influence outcomes through clarity, structure and emotional restraint. The session focuses on how professionals coach these skills in real cases and how they support court orders, mediation outcomes and safer co parenting.
Key themes
Why persuasion and insight fail in high-conflict co-parenting
The principles of B4 Skills™ and BIFF®
Reducing escalation through communication structure
Protecting children from adult hostility
Supporting predictable, bounded co-parenting
What delegates will gain
Practical communication tools usable immediately
Confidence managing hostile or provocative communication
Strategies for reducing repeat litigation and escalation
Skills that support child safety and professional resilience
How it connects to other sessions
Applies the neuroscience from Megan Hunter on Day One and the mediation structure from Bill Eddy’s New Ways for Mediation. Sits alongside Tracy Ann Moore-Grant’s session on the emotional cost of conflict work.