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Transformative Mediation
Dates: 26 – 30
May 2008 Location: Birmingham,
UK
Course fee: £1200 Number of days: 5
The Transformative
Mediation course has been developed to help organisations,
practitioners and mediators to enhance the quality of their
work, to gain new perspectives into the conflict
transformation field, and to develop new practices in
mediation.
Transformative Mediation
is the only course of its kind in the UK, specifically for
organisations and individuals with experience in the
mediation process locally in family and community settings
or for those interested in applying a transformative
approach to their mediation work in activities such as
peacebuilding and conflict sensitive programming.
Course aims:
·
The Transformative
Mediation course will teach participants how to structure
mediation in a way that is most likely to support the
parties in gaining clarity and making their own decisions
and in considering the perspectives of others it will also
teach participants to understand conflict as a crisis in
human interaction and recognise and exploit opportunities
for empowerment and recognition shifts when they occur.
·
The course is grounded in a
relational worldview and will emphasize restoring effective
communication and inter-party understanding much more than
obtaining a settlement.
Courses objectives
The course will enable
participants to apply a transformative approach in their
practice and to:
·
Explain the mediator's role and the objectives of
mediation as being focused on supporting empowerment and
recognition shifts.
·
Leave responsibility for the outcomes with the parties.
·
Not be judgmental about the parties' views and decisions.
·
Take an optimistic view of the parties' competence and
motives.
·
Allow and be responsive to parties' expression of
emotions.
·
Allow for and explore parties' uncertainty.
·
Remain focused on what is currently happening in the
mediation setting.
·
Be responsive to parties' statements about past events.
·
Realise that conflict can be a long-term process and that
mediation is one intervention in a longer sequence of
conflict interactions.
Suitable for
Mediators working in the community, national and international
context who face conflict in their work, whether this be
family, gangs, ethno political or international conflict and
for staff of national, international and community based
organisations, mediators, and practitioners working in
peacebuilding and the conflict transformation field.
Trainers on the course:
Judith A. Saul – Lead trainer – Fellow of The Institute for the
Study of Conflict Transformation (ISCT), US centre of
expertise on the transformative framework, and founder and
Executive Director of a community mediation center in New
York state.
The ISCT was founded in 1999 to study and promote understanding
of conflict and intervention processes from the
transformative perspective. The ISCT supports and provides a
forum for the work of scholars and practitioners in the
conflict intervention field who approach conflict from a
transformative view.
Vesna Matovic – Co-trainer - Responding to Conflict, UK based
International organisation, with expertise in conflict
transformation field.
What is Transformative mediation?
Transformative mediation
has been introduced to the field of mediation by the
publication of Baruch Bush and Joe Folger's book The
Promise of Mediation in 1994. This book contrasts two
different approaches to mediation: problem-solving and
transformative. The goal of problem solving mediation is
generating a mutually acceptable settlement of the immediate
dispute. Although content decisions are left in the hands of
the disputants, problem solving mediators often play a large
role in crafting the process, the settlement terms and
obtaining the parties' agreement.
The transformative approach to mediation does not focus on
resolution of the immediate problem, but rather, seeks to
support those caught in negative conflict interaction in
making empowerment and recognition shifts. Empowerment
shifts, according to Bush and Folger, enable the parties to
better understand the situation they face, define their own
issues and decide solutions or next steps on their own.
Recognition shifts enable the parties to see and understand
the other person's point of view--to understand how they
define the problem and why they seek the solution that they
do.
Transformative mediation is a relatively new concept that
has been applied primarily in the context of interpersonal
mediation. . Since empowerment and recognition shifts are
things that happen to people, the transformative approach is
most often thought of in terms of interpersonal
conflicts--family conflicts, conflicts between neighbours,
between co-workers, etc.. More recently, the Institute has
been applying the principles to large group and
ethno-political conflict situations.
Application Procedure
To apply
for one of RTC's courses, please download the application
form.
RTC application form 2008
Once completed please
return the application by email, fax, or post to RTC.
Responding to Conflict,
1046 Bristol Road, Birmingham, B29 6LK, UK
Fax: +44 (0) 121 415 4119 Email: courses@respond.org
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