BASIC MEDIATION TRAINING WORKSHOP
WASHINGTON, D.C.
August 6-10, 2009
Our 40-hour Basic Mediation Training workshop for professionals will be held August 6-10, 2009 at the site of Mediation Matters in Bethesda, Maryland. This workshop is designed to provide both hands-on training and a clear framework to enable participants to work effectively with parties involved in disputes who need help. Our past participants tell us that this is some of the best professional training they have ever received. We hope your experience will be the same.
Who should attend?
This workshop is for anyone interested in learning about mediation processes and augmenting their present practice and work with mediation skills, including attorneys, managers, and human service professionals, educators, religious leaders, persons in organizations who want to incorporate mediation in their professional skills, and private practitioners and consultants who would like to supplement their skills and practice.
What does this workshop include?
This highly interactive workshop uses a wide range of formats including video, demonstrations, lectures, discussions, simulations, story and music. The workshop, with a 400-page manual, covers the basic content areas of mediation. The training presents a six-stage model of the mediation process and focuses on the skills involved in becoming an effective mediator.
Some of the many components in this training include:
- three core paradigms for dealing with conflict
- advocacy and empowerment
- the styles of mediation & identifying yours
- asking skillful questions
- integrative and distributive bargaining
- understanding & working with clients' conflict stories
- using caucus effectively
- how co-mediation adds value
- mediator ethics and standards of practice
- starting your mediation practice & marketing
- writing competent memoranda of understanding
and much more.
A distinctive feature of this training is extensive use of videotapes for instruction,
including tapes of actual mediations.The workshop includes a minimum of six mediation
role-plays so that each participant can practice and develop his/her skills.
We will consider conflicts in a broad range of settings including health care,
disputing neighbors, family conflict, divorcing parents, civil, contract and employment
disputes, enabling participants to intervene effectively in conflict in a variety
of settings.
For Maryland residents, this workshop will meet the 40-hour requirement for basic mediation training under Rule 17 of the Court of Appeals in Maryland for those wishing to be approved as mediators.
The workshop is also approved for Category 1 SW CEUs for Maryland social workers and CEUs for Maryland Psychologists.
A certificate of completion, suitable for framing, will be issued to you upon successful completion of and full attendance at the training course.
Can I apply for membership in the Association for Conflict Resolution after this workshop?
Yes. The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) offers workshop graduates the opportunity for further professional development and networking. ACR is the newly merged successor organization to the Academy of Family Mediators, the Conflict Resolution Education Network, and The Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. This program also fulfills the 40-hour training requirements for Practitioner Member status in ACR.
Who are the faculty for the course?
The workshop will be led by:
Carl D. Schneider, Ph.D… Over the past 20 years, Carl has trained several thousand mediators locally, nationally, and abroad. Carl is the Director of Mediation Matters, in Bethesda, Maryland, and is a registered psychologist and licensed clinical Marriage and Family Therapist. Carl has been an Associate with Business Mediation Associates (1996-1997), a member of the Civil Rights Mediation Program of the Attorney General's Office in the State of Vermont (1995-6), a mediator with the Center for Employment Dispute Resolution (1998) and a mediator with the Baltimore District Office of EEOC (1997-02).
He is a mediator with the Department of Justice's Americans with Disabilities Act Mediation Program (1995-), the United States Post Office's REDRESS mediation program, the Mediator Network panel, and the Office of Human Rights of Montgomery County. He is a Certified Mediator with the Maryland Council on Dispute Resolution and with the Supreme Court of Virginia, and is an Advanced Practitioner Member of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). He is an Approved Mediator with the Frederick County Civil Mediation Program and certified for Circuit Court— Civil referrals in Virginia. He has been on the Board of Directors of the national Academy of Family Mediators, the Maryland Council on Dispute Resolution, the Mediation Council of Illinois, and the Family Mediation Association of Georgia. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
"Strengths too numerous to enumerate here - Generally, Carl Schneider does everything in the training well - outstanding teacher, speaker, preacher, entertainer - Teaches by example - what an example."
— Louisa Abbot, Superior Court Judge, Chatham County, Georgia
Coaches: experienced mediators will assist with individual coaching for participants in small group role plays.
Dates/Time/Location:
August 6-10, 2009. This is an intensive, experiential forty-hour workshop. We will meet from 8:45 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Thursday-Monday. Please plan to be present for the full workshop. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the first day; the workshop begins at 8:45 a.m. We end the workshop by 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
The workshop will be held at the office of Mediation Matters, 9816 Parkwood Drive, Bethesda, Maryland (click for directions).
What is the cost?
Early registration (a $175 deposit at least thirty days prior to the workshop) is $1225 (manual included). After that, the fee is $1325. The full balance is due two weeks prior to the workshop with no refunds beyond that point.
How do I register?
Send a check for $175 and a completed registration form to:
Mediation Matters
9816 Parkwood Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814
Your registration fee is refundable, less $25 service fee, up to three weeks prior to the training. Since many of our workshops fill quickly, we encourage you to register early.
Should I read anything beforehand?
Yes. We recommend two books - Roger Fisher and William Ury with Bruce Patton's 
Getting to Yes
(2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1991; $9) and Kenneth Cloke
and Joan Goldsmith’s
Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflict: Stories
of Transformation & Forgiveness (Jossey-Bass, 2000; $38). These books can be ordered online from
Amazon.com by clicking on the cover pictures to the left.
The 400 page Training Manual for the workshop, including ready-to-use forms, will be distributed the first day of the training.
What is the size of the workshop?
There will be a maximum of 12 participants in the workshop. We keep the workshops small so that participants have greater opportunity for role play.
Accommodations and Meals:
If you would like assistance in finding nearby comfortable accommodations, please contact us. We will provide a continental breakfast in the morning, snacks in the afternoon, and a gourmet luncheon daily.
What is the attire of the workshop?
Feel free to wear clothes in which you will be comfortable. Our experience is that people often differ in what they regard as a comfortable room temperature, so you may want to dress accordingly.
Please join us:
We hope you will be able to join us for this fine professional training. If you have any questions not answered on this page, feel free to call us (301/581-0330 or 1-800-905-2221 outside of the Washington DC area). We look forward to seeing you in August.
"I learned more in these few days (and had more fun too) than my entire Master's program (Yale). ...I shall never forget the experience. "
— Shelby Kay Buckman, M.S., Guardian ad Litem, New Haven, Connecticut
Carl D. Schneider,
Ph.D.
Director,
Mediation Matters
