WHAT MEDIATORS LEARN IN THEIR TRAINING

I just completed another training program for volunteer mediators. There are no national certification nor licensure requirements. Each individual state has its own guidelines for mediator training. Typically the first step for volunteers is a forty-hour course that includes:

  • The history and theory of mediation

  • The opening statement, listening and issue identification

  • Techniques for helping parties achieve agreements

  • Typical fact patterns in common disputes

  • Law and ethics

  • Dealing with cultural diversity

  • Program administration

    And usually the first course includes classroom lecture-discussion, role plays of simulated disputes with evaluation and assessment, and observations of actual mediations.

Professionals who do facilitative and transformative mediation training stress the principle of self-determination. They want volunteers to understand and appreciate the importance of disputing parties creating and crafting resolution to their own problems.

I asked the volunteers who completed my last class to tell me what they thought was the most important thing they learned. Some of the answers were:

“I learned the power of summarizing, asking questions, listening to get to the heart of the dispute.”

“I learned how to form my questions to help disputants clear their thinking, eliminate feelings, and find agreements.”

“I learned how to use listening to help disputants get off the merry-go-round of yes/no.”

“I was surprised to learn that the mediator doesn’t know the parties nor the content of their dispute. Now I understand that the mediator is the process expert—not the problem-solving expert.”

“I just wish I had taken this class years ago!”

Of course, I believe that everyone can benefit from learning mediation skills—even if they never become a formal mediator. The skills can be applied in our families, our neighborhoods, our organizations and our society.

Peter Costanzo