Stanford CIS

Dispute Resolution iPhone App

By Colin Rule on

Mike Sherry in the Kansas City Business Journal, "In a marital spat? There’s an app for that..."

"In a knock-down-drag-out fight with your significant other, you might be inclined to hurl a smartphone at your tormentor.

But Brookside psychotherapist Mark McGonigle hopes couples instead use their smartphones to de-escalate the feud with his new iPhone app.

“Fix a Fight,” available for $9.99 through the Apple iTunes store, guides users through an eight-step fence-mending process.

No waiting to see a therapist. No counseling bills to pay.

Just load it up, and away you go — complete with audio files of advice from McGonigle.

If his name sounds familiar, that’s because McGonigle is the son of the man who founded McGonigle’s Food Store, the south Kansas City market known for its high-quality meats.

“Fix a Fight” is the first offering from his new company, WiseMind Apps.

He’s biased, of course, but McGonigle thinks “Fix a Fight” would be an hour well spent for angry couples.

“The fact that the app guides you step by step makes it a safer experience,” he explained, “because the rules are real clear for communication, and it keeps the couple on track — and the kind of stuff we try to do in marital therapy is help people kind of put their communication in the right order.” [more]

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