We Make High-Conflict Behavior Manageable — Even When It Feels Impossible

We equip professionals with proven skills to navigate high-conflict behaviors in any setting — confidently, ethically, and effectively.

High Conflict Institute trains professionals to recognize, respond to, and reduce high-conflict behaviors using practical, research-backed skills. Co-founded by Bill Eddy and Megan Hunter, we help organizations and practitioners worldwide bring clarity, stability, structure, and greater peace to challenging situations—while reducing risk, lowering stress, and improving outcomes for everyone involved.

We believe that conflict is inevitable — but chaos is not.
With the right tools, conflict becomes predictable.
And predictable conflict is manageable.

Who We Serve

We work with organizations to manage and prevent high-conflict behaviors from both internal and external sources. Internally, we help leaders and teams build communication habits that stop conflict from escalating. Externally, we train professionals to respond effectively to high-conflict behaviors from clients, customers, litigants, parents, patients, and other professionals.

Trusted by professionals in 35+ states and 13 countries

• 20+ books published

• Top-rated podcast, It’s All Your Fault

• Millions of views on Psychology Today

Our Story

High Conflict Institute was founded in 2008 by Bill Eddy and Megan Hunter with one clear belief: high-conflict behavior is predictable — and professionals can learn the skills to manage it. For years, Bill and Megan watched highly capable lawyers, therapists, educators, and workplace leaders struggle with the same challenge: traditional approaches to conflict simply didn’t work with certain patterns of behavior. Cases escalated. Workplaces became strained. Families fractured. Professionals burned out. And no one was teaching the skills needed to change that.

Recognizing this urgent gap, they built High Conflict Institute to bring practical, research-backed tools to the people facing high-conflict behavior every day. Their mission was simple but transformative: give professionals clear methods, structured strategies, and communication skills that actually work — even in the most intense, unpredictable, or emotionally charged situations.

From a two-person idea to a global training organization, HCI has grown into the leading source for understanding and managing high-conflict behaviors across industries. Our methods have helped legal professionals stabilize volatile cases, workplaces prevent escalation, mental health providers guide clients more effectively, schools navigate difficult parent interactions, and healthcare teams handle emotionally intense moments with greater clarity and calm.

What began as a realization — that people needed better skills for the toughest behaviors — became a movement that has reached professionals in more than 35 states and 13 countries. Today, we continue to expand that mission: bringing practical peacebuilding tools to environments where uncertainty, emotion, and conflict often collide.

Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq.

Co-Founder & Director of Innovation

Bill Eddy is a pioneer in high-conflict personality theory and one of the most influential voices in modern conflict resolution. As a therapist, lawyer, mediator, and bestselling author of more than 20 books, he developed widely used tools including The CARS Method®, BIFF Response®, EAR Statements™, and the New Ways® series. His work is used across workplaces, courts, healthcare, government, and human services around the world. Bill’s integrated mental health and legal expertise continues to shape HCI’s research-driven methods for managing all levels of conflict. He also co-hosts the podcast It’s All Your Fault!

Megan Hunter, MBA

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Megan Hunter is a leading expert in conflict and relational dynamics and the creator of Conflict Influencer®. As The Conflict Influencer, she has spoken in more than ten countries across diverse industries and sectors, bringing practical conflict-resolution strategies to global audiences. She co-founded High Conflict Institute and has been central to developing research-based training and consulting frameworks used in workplaces, courts, healthcare, government, and human service systems. Megan’s work makes complex conflict concepts accessible and applicable in both organizational and personal settings. She also co-hosts the podcast It’s All Your Fault!

Why Our Work Matters

High-conflict behavior isn’t just inconvenient — it’s costly, stressful, and deeply disruptive. It shows up in workplaces, courts, classrooms, healthcare settings, families, and communities, often escalating situations that should be manageable. Miscommunication grows. Decisions get harder. Stress skyrockets. And without the right skills, even seasoned professionals can feel overwhelmed, lost, or pulled into the conflict themselves.

Our work matters because high-conflict behaviors are predictable — and when you understand the patterns, you can interrupt them. We provide the practical tools that help professionals reduce escalation, protect relationships, lower risk, calm intense situations, and guide people toward better outcomes. Whether the conflict is internal within an organization or external with clients, customers, patients, litigants, parents, or other professionals, these skills make a tangible difference. They reduce stress. They prevent crises. And they bring clarity and peace to places where conflict once felt impossible to navigate.

Our Mission

Our mission is to bring clarity, stability, and peace to situations where high-conflict behavior disrupts communication, decision-making, and relationships. We empower professionals in every field with practical, research-backed skills to recognize high-conflict patterns early, respond ethically and effectively, and reduce the stress and risk these behaviors create.

We exist to make the most challenging interactions more manageable — for individuals, teams, families, organizations, and communities. By helping professionals prevent escalation and navigate high-conflict behaviors with confidence, we support healthier systems, safer environments, and better outcomes for everyone involved.

Our Approach

High-conflict behavior follows predictable patterns — and those patterns can be managed with the right structure. Our core framework, The CARS Method®, gives professionals a simple, reliable roadmap for calming, organizing, and resolving high-conflict situations.

CARS stands for:
Connect with empathy • Analyze options • Respond to hostility • Set limits and structure

We teach CARS in all of our programs, including our New Ways® methods, which train professionals to use— and to teach their clients — the 4 Big Skills® essential for preventing and managing high-conflict behavior: Flexible Thinking, Managed Emotions, Moderate Behaviors, and Checking Yourself.

Every tool we teach — from EAR Statements™ and BIFF Response® to COP Actions™ and SLIC Solutions™ — fits within this framework. Our approach is practical, research-backed, and easy to use under pressure, helping professionals reduce escalation, stress, and risk in any setting.

What Makes HCI Different

We specialize in the small subset of conflicts where emotions spike, blame escalates, and traditional methods stop working. Our approach is uniquely effective because it blends structure, skills, and clarity in a way professionals can use immediately—even under the most intense pressure.

The CARS Method® is our foundation.

Every program we teach is built on this simple, powerful roadmap for calming, organizing, and resolving high-conflict behavior.

New Ways® teaches long-term skills for change.

Professionals learn to use—and teach—the 4 Big Skills® that prevent escalation and build healthier communication patterns.

Our tools work across industries.

Legal, mental health, education, workplace leadership, HR, healthcare, government, law enforcement — any place where high-conflict behavior shows up.

We focus on behavior, not blame.

Our methods address high-conflict patterns, not labels or diagnoses. This keeps our approach ethical, respectful, and universally applicable.

We pioneered the theory behind the method.

Bill Eddy’s High Conflict Personality Theory and the CARS Method® transformed how professionals understand and respond to high-conflict behavior worldwide.

We make the unmanageable feel manageable.

Our tools are practical, research-backed, and easy to use—helping professionals reduce escalation, stress, and risk while improving outcomes for everyone involved.

Our Team

High Conflict Institute is powered by a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, mediators, therapists, educators, workplace specialists, and conflict-resolution experts who bring decades of experience to every training and consultation. Each member of our team is deeply trained in the CARS Method® and the New Ways® methods, ensuring a consistent, practical, and research-based approach no matter who you work with.

We’ve delivered trainings and consultations in 35+ states and 13 countries, and our trainers have worked across industries including law, mental health, education, healthcare, customer service, government, and corporate leadership.

Whether we’re teaching a courtroom full of attorneys, guiding a workplace team, advising a government agency, or helping professionals serve families in crisis, our team brings clarity, structure, and a calm, skilled presence to every high-conflict situation.

MEET OUR TEAM >

Let's Work Together

High-conflict behavior doesn’t have to derail your teams, cases, clients, or community. Whether you want to strengthen your organization’s internal communication, train your staff to manage high-conflict interactions, or bring the CARS Method® and New Ways® skills to the people you serve, we’re here to help. Our team can design training, consulting, and implementation solutions tailored to your setting — in person, virtual, hybrid, or through your LMS. Ready to bring more clarity, structure, and peace to your organization?

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