Rick, you sound like someone who cares very much about professional development – I so admire your openness to feedback and to continued learning. I’d be very interested in following the efforts of the Maryland community mediators. I hope you’ll keep me apprised. Perhaps you might even be interested in drafting a guest post for me on that subject. I’d be honored if you’d consider that.

Once again, thanks to you all for commenting.

I also want to offer apologies – because of technical difficulties, earlier comments on this post unfortunately have vanished. To those who took the time to make comments earlier, I am sorry for this unexpected problem and for the convenience. It’s as frustrating for me as no doubt it is for you.

The change to certification has to come from within the field. If we allow anyone to wear the title of mediator regardless of their qualifications, then it’s only a matter of time before something goes terribly wrong, the industry falls under public scrutiny and restrictions start getting placed and enforced from outside the industry.

I think a good way to look at this issue is to analyze how the public might select mediators if there is no certification process. Whether it’s cost, reputation, agreement rate or accessibility, these qualifiers don’t necessarily say much about how likely a mediator is to help you resolve your conflict. There needs to standards on what is considered mediation and what makes an effective mediator, and we need to be the ones to initiate that change.

In theory this process sounds impressive but it also seems very subjective. Sounds like it provides a whole new industry for the certification process.

I recommend anyone who reads this post backtrack your prior thoughts on this subject, first by linking to your first hyperlink above (the arguments on both sides, pro and con), and then backtracking some of the links at the bottom of the post you kindly provided there.

I’d also suggest reading the ACR 2004 proposal you refer and link to. Wow! We are a weird creature, we being humans, of course, to strive through legislation to secure the illusion of certainty, when, at least in part it’s the spirit of all this work we do that also matters. If the recent financial debacle(s) should amply demonstrate, anyone trying hard enough will always find ways around the regulations. And how do we certify spirit, much less define it?

A danger presented by all this search for regulation is that the field we work in is transdisciplinary, not interdisciplinary. By transdisciplinary I mean that it rises above the individual disciplines, and incorporates them all. Law, psychology, sociology, religion or – as some prefer because the word I just used is so loaded – spirtuality (as in I am spiritual, but not religious), systems analysis and modification, and, I suspect, on and on into related fields already being looked at like narrative story telling, interpersonal and transpersonal relations, dance, music and composing (the latter three, and perhaps narrative, buiolding on the idea of art form.

So the let’s go slow aspect of our search for “an answer” (are there many, should we think outside the box?) is probably very healthy, frustrating as it is not to have AN ANSWER.

As always, kudos for your fine work.

John

I think part of the answer to the credentialing challenge is some sort of hybrid model – e.g., 1) regulation and enforcement of basic criteria to maintain ‘mediator’ status within a jurisdiction and 2) further, additional credentials associated with a specific service area – e.g., civil, divorce, family, elder…

For most citizens, a huge challenge is can I trust this person to give me good service. And so, another credential consideration might be creation of more 3rd party trust verifiers – independent of regulators, and maybe even as another layer of a hybrid model. Mediator credentialing is a complex issue – the more checks and balances on the solution side, the better.

As citizens we live in a largely self-assessing country(s), in which its’ largely left up to us to figure out what we are entitled to (e.g., good mediators) and where to find them (???). As a citizen, we need all the help we can get.

The questions you pose are important. Thanks for taking initiative.