Recent Posts in Mediation Training Category
| February 07, 2012 |
| GARY FRIEDMAN to Teach RIVERSIDE County Attorneys Mediation Skills at Upcoming Workshop |
| Posted By Desert Family Mediation Services |
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I am pleased to be this year's Chair of the Desert Bar Association's Family Law Section (FLS). Together with Barrie Roberts, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Director for the Riverside County Superior Courts, FLS is putting on a mediation program for family law attorneys in the Palm Springs and greater Riverside County area to introduce us to the Understanding Based Mediation Model developed by Gary J. Friedman, and as a useful tool in appropriate family law cases for helping people resolve their cases with far less strife than traditionally encountered.
The Riverside County Superior Court is launching a county-wide Family Law Mediation Panel in March, 2012, which is aimed at serving at least two purposes: 1) increasing the number of trained family law mediators to include those family law attorneys who are approved by the Courts as having significant family law background and experience and 2) creating a pool of trained mediators for the new Voluntary Settlement Conference Program (VSC) that will begin to take place in April, 2012 for selected self-represented parties to pending dissolution cases.
Gary Friedman will be putting on a four-day workshop in Palm Springs at the end of February, and in the first week of March, for lawyers who have been accepted to the new Mediation Panel (and certain non-lawyers including mental health professionals, who will be eligible to co-mediate cases with attorneys), and for those who are interested in adding mediation to their family law and civil practices but who don't qualify for the Panel. This program is made possible through the sponsorship of the Riverside County Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Services program, as well as the sponsorship of the Desert Bar Association and the Riverside Courts.
Beginning in approximately April of this year, Judge Dale Wells of the Indio Superior Court will be supervising a new VSC program in Indio on the first Monday of each month, relying upon the services of the members of the newly created Mediation Panel. Its focus for now will be directed to assisting parties without lawyers to move their divorce and family law cases to conclusion through mediation rather than litigation. We hope to expand the program to make mediation a viable alternative for resolving pending cases in our jurisdiction.
This is truly and exciting development. Approximately 15 attorneys in the greater Coachella Valley will be participating in this workshop, as well as attorneys from Hemet and downtown Riverside. This is expected to have benefits to the public beyond the Panel and VSC program, by increasing the number of trained and experienced family law mediators in our area. Mediation truly helps attorneys, even in litigated cases, to focus on compromise and resolution rather than expensive and time-consuming litigation in every case.
T.W. Arnold, Chair of the Family Law Section of the Desert Bar Association (2012)
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| October 12, 2010 |
| The DFMS Team Attends Five Day Intensive Workshop |
| Posted By Desert Family Mediation Services |
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The entire five member DFMS team of mediators and co-mediators returned Monday, October 12, from a week of intensive mediation training in northern California through The Center of Understanding in Conflict & The Center for Mediation in Law.
Gary J. Friedman and Catherine Conner facilitated what seemed at times like countless exercises over the course of this workshop of lectures, participant interactions, and role plays and practicums. There was an exceptionally dedicated group of professionals in attendance, including one man who traveled all the way from Germany (cheers, Markus!), from the fields of law, psychology, marriage and family therapy, accounting, human resources, and post-doctoral training.
We believe that in order to serve our clients as integrated professional mediators it is essential that we train together, and that we train often. Effective mediation skills cannot be picked up casually, or acquired merely through life or professional experiences. Instead, it is essential that a practice be maintained in order to develop expertise and artfulness. We are greatful to have had the opportunty to study with Gary, who has a well deserved international reputation.
What distinguishes the Understanding-Based Model of Mediation from more traditional forms is the idea of empowerment for the participants. Some forms of mediation are highly directed by the mediator themselves, in the sense that they suggest or tell clients what the outcomes ought to be. The Understanding-Based Model holds that the deciders of people's choices might more appropriately be the people themselves, rather than strangers who presume to know what the best outcome for any couple is. Having a stranger determine what your resolution should be is not far removed from what happens in Court processes, even if such mediations are a kinder and more gentle experience than have a judge determine your future.
But saying that people should decide their own outcomes is only the point of beginning because many things interfere in practical terms with how that might come about. Most people locked in conflict - surprise! - lack the clarity to see beyond it. This is why the job of the peacemaking mediator is to facilitate recognitions that may lie beneath the surface and so otherwise may be missed, as well as to help clients to generate options that are more deeply relevant to their own lives than what any outsider could express.
We believe this model of mediation is particularly well suited to family disputes, and will tell you more about why we believe this as our Blog evolves.
T.W. Arnold
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