Anyone out there familiar with the work of parenting consultants who may be able to weigh in? If so, please do so, readers. Thanks.

While I believe there is a place for “parenting consultants’ our experience was in a complete lack of managing the process. The rules of communication changed daily, the PC was completely lacking in taking any stand in backing up agreements and would suggest we “just change them” if one or the other was not willing to follow. The entire process was a “who’s on first” ? It was frustrating, we did not make any progress and spent a lot of time and money.

I filed a complaint with our state ADR Ethics Board, understanding that this is a political board, but hoping for them to acknowledge the low level of service and practice we received. While my very thorough complaint was reviewed, there was no investigation issued.

As a former sales person, if I had managed my business and or customers the way my family was managed by the parenting consultant, I would have been fired in a few months. In most business models there is a chain of command and a body of best practices standards for the employee’s to follow. Starting with ethics.

I’m afraid that if some governmental standards and regulations are not set soon, then there will continue to be less than standard mediators and parenting consultants who will continue to practice and or enter the field. For a family who is desperate for this assistance and service the ramifications could be devastating.

Where do I go from here?

Sincerely,
Chantal Shreve

BTW, I do admire the way IMI handled the issue of certification – it was an open and transparent process, and they made great effort to encourage input from stakeholders. And what you’ve told me about Safe Horizon gives me hope that private certification can be done right in the right hands. They strike me as an organization that cares deeply about best practices. I’d love to have an opportunity to take one of their trainings in fact – I know I’d learn a lot.

Thanks for setting me straight, buddy, and again, sorry about the goof.

whoa-whoa-whoa!

Please let me clarify- I am a fan of IMI but by no means private cerification as a whole. Credibility is vital for a certfication scheme and I think IMI has it. Other groups, like Safe Horizon (NYC, Community Dispute Res. Center) for example, is also one which I find credible but as for the:

ABA- No way, I do not think they should take the lead on this. I would hope they would support an multi-association initiative though.

ACR- From your comments and others, it seems like there is heaps of work to be done.

Phil, I remain on the fence about the wisdom of governmental regulation of the mediation profession. Like you, I remain distrustful of bureaucrats and don’t have confidence that public regulation would produce desirable outcomes. The legal profession provides many a cautionary tale, including the geographical restrictions on practice and resistance to innovation (as in the case of collaborative law). The mediation field doesn’t need that.

I do have some faith in the market and would hope that the market will weed out the incompetent. Yet I’m concerned that there are no barriers to entry and that anyone can hold themselves out as a mediator. It means that the unethical can act in our name. What prompted me to write this was not to urge for formal public regulation of mediators but to remind us all that we bear collective and individual responsibility to advance the field.

Jeff, my friend, I know you’re a proponent of private certification. However, I’m not impressed by how ACR has handled it in the past or how it seems to be handling it now. They botched it once before. I’m also not eager to see the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution involved here; disrespect and even disdain for mediators who aren’t attorneys was very much evident at the annual meeting in April in NYC. It would require a well designed and fully inclusive process to successfully pull off a national conversation about private certification.

In the meantime, all we have is each other. With people like Phil and Jeff at the ready, there’s hope that we can make this work.

Good stuff- one of the many problems, which we have discussed before is the issue of self regulation. If it is not compulsory to join a group (such as the ABA or ACR), say Mr. Mediator (or Ms. Mediator) gets booted from the organization. Guess what, he/she still gets to privately practice with no worries and the public will never know.
My (very quick and knee-jerk) response would be it is vital for groups like JAMS, CPR, and CDRC’s ACR, and the ABA to embrace (make it mandatory) a joint program for qualification/certification (arrggh, I know you cringe when I use the “C” word!).
I still think, at least at the moment, IMI- http://www.IMImediation.org- provides that.

As you know, I am not a fan of mediator regulation, principally because I think the costs would outweigh the benefits, and because it would tend to reward mediocrity. But it may be that a workable regulatory scheme could be devised that preserves many of the benefits that exist in the current marketplace. One part of such a scheme would be an enforceable ethics code.

You are absolutely right that mediators have to try to adopt a workable system of self-regulation in the absence of government regulation. And a good place to start would be a set of agreed upon ethical principles that most of the profession takes seriously.

If you believe that government regulation is on the horizon, then that’s all the more reason for mediators to self-regulate and try to agree on what constitutes ethical behavior. If there is to be a government code of ethics, let it be drawn from something that experienced, responsible mediators devised themselves with the best interests of the profession in mind. That’s far preferable to having bureaucrats draw something up that doesn’t make a lot of sense. And it may be that the end result will simply be the government lending its enforcement power to what the profession has already agreed should be the rules.

Phil

I’ve known for a long time you are a mediator, and teacher, of “heart and honor’. Those students next week will be lucky to spend some time with you.

My best to you, and for your efforts.

John

John, you write with such poetry and conviction! I know I’ve said this before, but you would make a great blogger with your talent for writing and your way with words. I particularly like what you say at the end…that it is a matter of heart and of honor. Without moral impulse or what you call spirit, rules are indeed white bones.

I wrote this post out of concern about the magical thinking that I have observed out there – mediators who think that these hallowed ethical principles have actual authority, who think that they provide real protection and possess regulatory power to curb bad behavior. That’s a false sense of security in the power of good intentions. Moral authority these guidelines might have, but they lack teeth, let alone bones. I’m about to teach a group of new mediators next week; I want to impress upon them the responsibility that falls on their shoulders as individuals to conduct themselves honorably, in a world without real regulations. I want them to feel the humbling weight of that responsibility on their shoulders.