As a trainer of mediators, however, I have to say that there is a correlation between education and the ability to mediate effectively. Practice without theory to support it is like shooting in the dark – you may hit your target occasionally as a matter of chance, but your aim will be substantially better if light shines on your target. To use a different and more appropriate metaphor, there may be musical prodigies who have never taken a lesson. But even the most gifted musicians benefit from a formal course of music study under the supervision of experienced masters, learning to read, compose, and play music, and mastering the science and theory behind music. I work with new mediators all the time, and it’s the very rare student who has perfect pitch. Most of them are simply shooting in the dark (sorry, there I go, mixing my metaphors).

More and more I find myself agreeing with my colleague Tammy Lenski that training alone isn’t sufficient and that education is what is needed to prepare mediators for competent practice. I’ve taught many people who’ve told me at the end of a training program, “I thought I had a calling to mediation and have discovered mediation practice is far more challenging and complex than I thought it would be. I arrived thinking it would be easy, and now I realize I still have a long way to go to gain mastery.” Come back here after you’ve completed a good mediation training program (and choose it with care to be sure you’ve selected the best program possible) and tell me then if you if you learned nothing new or revelatory.

Mediators, by the way, most certainly do have “the power to mess up someone’s life”. Sadly, it does happen. Lawsuits against mediators for malpractice don’t occur with the same frequency as they do against physicians and lawyers (not yet at any rate), but happen they do, and more and more often. I urge you to read a post by my colleague Victoria Pynchon about a particularly egregious case. It’s by no means an isolated story. And please be aware that not every mediator practices the facilitative model you describe – plenty of parties reject a facilitative model and prefer a mediator who will provide evaluation. Various models of practice abound and not all embrace the same ethos or philosophy. Each envision a different role for mediators and parties to play.

As for the value of peer supervision of mediators, well, the majority of my referrals come from clients and lawyers, not from other mediators, and that’s not unique to me. It’s the realities of the marketplace. Mediators in private practice operate behind closed doors, usually without peer supervision. The confidentiality of the process conceals our activities from public view. In addition, a good number of mediators are lone wolves, operating outside the orbit of professional associations for mediators, answerable only to themselves. Moreover, unless we’ve observed a colleague mediate or otherwise have direct knowledge of their competence, we’d be hard-pressed to recommend them to a disputant. Also, what happens in a particular circle of mediators if most of the mediators are inadequately trained and unskilled? (I can think of one example right now in which that’s so.) What then is the value of those peer reviews or of peer oversight? In such a case, in the absence of formal oversight of mediators in private practice, you’re left with an echo chamber of mediocrity. In any event, I’m not sure that success in the market is the best predictor of skill. I know of terrible mediators who are making a good living, and great mediators who struggle. The lack of diversity, meanwhile, remains a huge issue, and women and minorities remain underrepresented on prestigious panels, to the great shame of our field.

I understand your idealism, and it’s certainly a charming idea that mediation is an art too pure and high to be sullied by public regulation and oversight. The reality is otherwise. Don’t cast aside your idealism by any means, but please be aware that things are far, far more complex than they appear on the surface. The truth is far grittier. And so is practice, for that matter.

Thanks again, Tricia, and best of luck to you.

I enjoyed reading your comment. I am not a mediator. I am just researching qualifications, training, and education to become one. You made some wonderful points. I think that regulating training and education is only going to make the profession more political and bias. We already have enough of that in our courts and legal systems. That is more of the problem then the solution.

Why can’t mediators be held accountable by their peers? I think that ones ability to find and maintain clientele is a direct result of his or her ability to perform the job and get results. As stated above, I don’t agree that a mediator has the power to mess up someones life. I view a mediator as a facilitator to assist one in making a decision. The mediator doesn’t make the decisions. I would be concerned about a mediator that views his or her role as being an authority and decision maker. The parties involved make the decisions and have the authority, not the mediator. To some degree, a mediator is endorsed informally by his or her clients and peers. If he or she isn’t, they won’t be a working mediator. Thus, the problem takes care of itself. No risk.

Personally, as I was researching qualifications, I didn’t see a direct correlation between education and one’s ability to do the job. I think that knowledge, being able to communicate effectively, one’s ability to understand the issues are important but that doesn’t necessarily from formal education. I know a lot of highly educated people that can’t reason or negotiate or relate to others. Sadly enough, at the root of the conflict, is often self interest. Furthermore, I think that there is an art to conflict/resolution. There are some things that you can’t learn in the classroom.

Thanks kindly for visiting my blog and for your comment. I do appreciate that you stopped by.

I’m going to ask you a great favor. Could you read the following post first, including the linked articles it references, and then get back to me if you still have questions?

http://mediationchannel.com/2009/06/30/please-contact-mebut-kindly-read-this-first-if-you-need-advice/

It may save both of us time. The short answer is that theory is important, but so, too, is praxis. But please read this material and then let me know if you still have questions you’re grappling with. Thanks again.

I was told that I could gain the “hands-on” experience I lacked by attending a basic mediation training program. I have probably read just about every training program offered online and off, and I am still unsure which might be better for me than another. I have my preferences, i.e. anything by American Institute of Mediation (AIM), J. Malamed, N. Meierding, or S. Rosenberg, but as Megan-Fay mentioned, most programs are $1000.00 for 4-days training, and more for 5-days (40 hrs.), not to mention food, hotel, etc.

I emailed K. Seat who thought that possibly my MA in NCRP might be enough to get me started, and L. J. Berman, who thought that I would need a 40-hr mediation course and start doing some mediation, to get some experience … Truthfully, on one hand, (since I am unemployed) I cannot afford the cost of doing anything, but on the other, I cannot afford not to … I was advised to try and get on with a mediation firm and have them train me (as opposed to paying for it), but that seems unlikely as I have called a few and that is not in their best interest.

I truly believe that I have a lot to offer, but am not confidant to go ahead on my own without training. Lee Jay said that mediation was so “experiential” that I would have to “get into the room, get involved, practice with some simulations, feel the mistakes and what works, and develop the comfort level and confidence that comes with sitting in that chair with two disputing people staring at you (or alternatively ignoring you!)”.

That I believe.

Michael Scott

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1. In Romania, there is an independent public institution called the Council of Mediation, composed of mediators elected every 2 years by the General Assembly of Mediators (basically, every mediator can vote, and there are now some 800 of them). This is the institution that govern the profession of mediation in Romania. It authorizes mediators (one cannot practice mediation in Romania without a formal authorization from the Council) based on some condition to be fulfilled by the applicant, one of them being “to prove that he or she has attended a training course provided by an accredited training institution”. That means that training of mediators in Romania cannot be done by anyone without going through the process of accreditation by the Council of Mediation. The Council verifies if the applicant institution respects a minimum accepted standards in doing the training (minimum 80 hours of training, face-to-face, with at least 70% of time dedicated to simulations, role-playings, case studies; that training is done by experienced mediators who also have teaching credentials, especially on adult professional education; and so on). There are only 8 accredited training programs in a country of 20 mil., and they have trained aprox. 800 mediators since 2006. These rules are imo as good as the next. I don’t think that a training program, being 30/40/70/80 hours long, it is enough to make a mediator – only real life practice can do this. It takes case after case, to knock your head on difficult real situation, where everything is at stake , white nights of thinking about the best strategy to adopt for the next morning mediation meeting. A good mediation training can help, and certainly can make a difference, but it is just the A-B out of A-Z.

2. as a researcher with the Center of Conflict Studies, I’ve done a short comparative study of mediation implementation in Europe. The study brought to light huge differences between EU member countries – there are countries that have a lot of regulations, standards, rules and codes governing mediation, and where mediation is an almost complete failure; and there are countries where mediation has been a long-living success without any regulation at all (see Denmark, where mediation has been practiced since 1795, but has no laws regulating mediation and the profession of mediation – basically, everyone can be a mediator as long as it serves the purpose: to settle a conflict outside the court of justice, by peaceful means).

So, I don’t know if there can be a sensible answer to the problem you have raised. If rules governing the mediators’ training should be adopted, who’s going to make them, and then enforce them? And who can safely say which method of training is the best? Or what the standards should be? I think that a responsible training program should give to attendants a minimum set of tools, mandatory to everyone who wants to practice mediation – a basic set of concepts, methods and techniques. And then let personal qualities, market and life itself make the difference between a talented mediator and a failed one. Regulation generally leads to over-regulation, and this certainly doesn’t get the job done – settle conflicts outside and before reaching the courts of justice, with attention not only to what’s at stake materially, but also emotionally. If that can be done by a person with 30 or 80 or null hours of training, I’d say that’s just fine.

But for a number of organizations, training is an income source – why shouldn’t such organizations be able to make money like any other business? Moreover, if people want to enter mediation as a profession, isn’t it reasonable to expect that you will have to pay money towards obtaining education and training, just as you would for any other profession? Why should mediation training be any different?

My concern lies more with the ethics of training and the representations that are made about what such training will qualify people for. And I remain concerned about the quality of training – remember that there is no public oversight of mediation training programs – any organization or individual can provide mediation training. No credentialing is necessary. These days I am much more worried about these issues than whether people will be able to afford mediation training. Even if training is available for free or low cost, how can any of us be assured that the training will be any good? We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us still.

Thanks again, Megan-Fay – I appreciate the points you’ve raised here.