I’m pleased to be presenting a workshop at the Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators in Harrisburg. This year’s theme is practice challenges. The two-day conference will be kicked off with a full-day workshop with internationally renowned conflict resolution expert Bernie Mayer, who will present “The Conflict Paradox: The Dilemmas and Contradictions that Define our Work (and our Lives).”
On day two, I’ll sharing some of my unique approaches to mediation in “Coaching to Improve Mediation Outcomes: An Examination of Processes, Pitfalls, and Ethics.” The program description is below:
Careful and skilled application of coaching approaches can effectively support parties in making free and informed choices, deepen their understanding of the conflict, achieve greater clarity about their goals in the mediation, reach more thorough understandings about their decision-making, bolster their self-advocacy, and strengthen their commitment to and compliance with their mediated agreement. But the application of coaching techniques without care, caution, and skill, can raise questions about the mediator’s impartiality and potential for favoritism. We will examine how practices of conflict and personal coaching can be applied to support self-determination and avoid appearances of partiality.