Creating an Inter-Disciplinary ADR Team: 360 Degree Solutions
SCMA Fall Conference 2013 Materials
Presenters:
Diana Mercer, Attorney-Mediator,
Stephanie Maloney, CFP, CDFA ™, Financial Neutral & Mediator,
Lisa Davis, LCSW, Ph.D. Candidate, Therapist-Mediator,
Peace Talks Mediation Services
Family law is presents unique crossover issues: The law is only one tile in the divorce mosaic which includes child development, financial planning and grief processing. Working in an inter-disciplinary team enables families to resolve all of their challenges as part of the settlement process. Learn how to create your own team, while maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks.
The Benefits of Working in Multi-Disciplinary Teams: Part 1 of the program explores the many benefits of working in ongoing multi-disciplinary teams, both for clients and professionals involved. We will also brainstorm with the participants on how to expand the range of possibilities for working with clients as part of a team to provide 360 solutions.
The Clients’ Perspective: Part 2 of the program looks at multi-disciplinary teams from the clients’ perspective. What are the value, benefits and results clients can anticipate from working in this way? How can we coordinate our efforts to make such services affordable, particularly for those with limited financial resources? Optimizing clients’ use and benefit from resources and professional services in tough economic times.
The Realities of Working with a Multi-Disciplinary Teams:Part 3 of the program tests the realities of working together in a multi-disciplinary team. While we’re all ADR professionals, our personalities and professional points of view may come from different perspectives. What are the practicalities of managing the team itself? We’ll also talk about the kinds of agreements, protocols, forms and templates you’ll want to develop as you bring your team together.
Learning objectives:
•Exploring and expanding the many benefits of working in ongoing multi-disciplinary teams, both for clients and professionals involved
•Navigating the practicalities of working together to provide complementary, not competitive, services. Realizing the synergies available through multi-disciplinary practice.
•Creating forward-thinking solutions for the symphony of needs and problems presented by family law cases
•Expanding the range of possibilities for serving clients, particularly those with limited financial resources
•Optimizing clients’ use and benefit from resources and professional services in tough economic times.
Bios:
Diana Mercer is an Attorney-Mediator and the founder of Peace Talks Mediation Services, She is the co-author of Making Divorce Work: 8 Essential Keys to Resolving Conflict and Rebuilding Your Life (Penguin/Perigee 2010), Your Divorce Advisor: A Lawyer and a Psychologist Guide You Through the Legal and Emotional Landscape of Divorce (Simon & Schuster/Fireside 2001) and 8 Simple Keys to Building and Growing Your Mediation or Arbitration Practice (Peace Talks Press 2011). Diana also writes for the Huffington Post as well as her own blog, Making Divorce Work.
Stephanie Maloney is a Certified Financial Planner, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst ™, Financial Neutral & Mediator. She was one of the first practicing divorce financial planners in the Los Angeles area. As a mediator with Peace Talks, Stephanie brings her expertise to help mediation clients make good choices for settlement. She helps determine the short-term and long-term financial impact of proposed divorce settlements, offers valuable insight into the pros and cons of different settlement proposals, and helps avoid common financial pitfalls of divorce.
Ms. Maloney earned her Certified Financial Planning (CFP®) credential from the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado in 1991. She completed the training by the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts as a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst in 1999. She has also taken Collaborative Divorce™ training and completed 30 hours of mediation training in 2005 and 40 hours of divorce mediation training in 2007. Stephanie has over 25 years of professional experience in the financial services industry providing a broad range of financial and advisory services for her clients.
Having personally gone through a divorce involving the future of her child, Stephanie is prepared to assist her clients, both financially and emotionally. She helps determine the short-term and long-term financial impact of proposed divorce settlements, offers valuable insight into the pros and cons of different settlement proposals, and helps avoid common financial pitfalls of divorce. Whether it's in a mediation session or as part of an individual consultation for each party in mediation, Stephanie provides personalized reports illustrating the financial status, cash flow and net worth of divorcing parties.
Stephanie is a member of the Institute for Certified Divorce Planners, the California Divorce Planners Network, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Alternate Dispute Resolution Standing Committee of the State Bar-Family Law Section (Southern California), and Associate Member of the Los Angeles County Bar.
Lisa Davis, LCSW, Ph.D. Candidate, Therapist-Mediator Lisa Davis has worked with individuals, couples and families facing a variety of difficult life struggles as a clinical social worker for the past 19 years. Lisa worked in community-based mental health center as a clinician, program developer, and clinical director and also taught clinical social work practice at California State University at Northridge. As a therapist mediator, she is committed to the process of constructive dialogue that enables couples and families to resolve disputes in a beneficial manner. Lisa has also recently joined the doctoral program at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. Her research interests revolve around coping and resilience and she has presented at numerous conferences and published articles in academic journals on this topic.
Contact:
Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc.
8055 W. Manchester Ave, Suite 201
Playa del Rey CA 90293
(310) 301-2100
Materials:
Co-Mediations: Collaboration and Kicks Under the Table
Working as a team in mediations can be as beneficial for mediators as it is for clients. As much as Peace Talks is a for-profit venture, the vision was to take everything that people hate about the family law system and do the opposite---mostly for the clients, but also for the professionals.
As a beginning divorce practitioner in 1988, it didn’t take me long to realize that only about 20% of any given divorce case was actually a law problem. Mostly, divorce cases (in my opinion) are financial quandaries to be solved and emotions to be worked through and healed. It made no sense to me that lawyers were expected to do it all, although the best divorce lawyers have a well-rounded, seasoned skill set in not only family law but child development, grief work, financial planning and tax, among other things.
Peace Talks operates solely in a co-mediation model (at least—often, we include 3 mediators, and not just two). We believe it makes clients feel more comfortable because both the legal and emotional aspects of the divorce can be addressed.
For the professionals, it makes a rewarding process all the more fascinating as we debrief after the mediations and develop our strategies for helping our clients through the process.
Co-mediation also helps develop new mediators, and you can give each other helpful feedback on what you observed in the session, both in terms of what happened between the couple, but also how the parties reacted to each of the mediator’s methods for helping them reach agreement.
There are many other benefits to co-mediation:
•The entire responsibility for the success of the session doesn’t rest on one mediator
•The co-mediators can help each other identify their own biases
•There’s a greater opportunity for feedback
•When the lead mediator is stumped, often the co-mediator can think of a good follow-up question or different method for helping the couple move off impasse or neutralize conflict
•If need be, you can assume the roles of “good cop” and “bad cop”
•You can emphasize each of your strengths, and learn from each other. For example, the therapist might be the lead mediator during the parenting discussions, and the lawyer might be the lead on the legal questions.
Not only does the couple benefit, but the mediators learn from each other.
There are some ground rules for the mediators in a co-mediation setting which we’ve found helpful:
Decide in advance who will take care of any mediation paperwork, intakes and scheduling before the mediation. It’s important that the clients feel that you’re on the same team, and that you communicate with each other. It’s embarrassing and unprofessional if one phones only to find out the client has already scheduled the appointment with the other mediator. If these tasks are done by administrative staff, so much the better.
Coordinate calendars by either maintaining an online calendar which you share, schedule meetings via software programs such as Outlook, iCal, Google calendar or Airset, or any of the other group scheduling platforms available. If you maintain a master calendar, you don’t need to phone each other each time a new client calls to book an appointment.
Decide in advance who will cover the introduction, initial questions about the session, ground rules and any remaining paperwork once you get in the mediation room with the clients. Divide the tasks any way you choose, but have a plan beforehand so you don’t inadvertently interrupt each other.
If you’ve never mediated together before, meet in advance to discuss your individual styles and favorite techniques. Determine your relative preferences on transformative, directive, and facilitative mediation models. Make ground rules for yourselves as to how you will conduct the session. Will you use individual caucuses? Do you ask for opening statements? Will you use an easel to write down the issues, and who will do the writing? How will you handle those moments when you both want to talk at once? How will you signal to each other that you need to caucus as mediators? How much information you’ll share with the clients if asked: will the lawyer answer direct legal questions? Will you use the Dissomaster™ in session? Will the therapist make therapy referrals, or refer to diagnoses? How will you deal with your different philosophies about methodology and your own biases and values? How will you alert each other if you feel the other mediator is causing problems or pursuing a path you feel is strongly negative? How will you signal when you don’t want the other mediator to interrupt a particular flow of questions?
The answers to these questions are less important than the fact you’ve talked about them and agreed how you’ll handle these situations. Legitimate disagreement between the two mediators handled well can be a great model for clients. By modeling positive communication and problem-solving skills in your own dialogue, you can educate the parties how to communicate better both during the mediation, and after their case is completed.
If you’ve never mediated together before, decide in advance who will be the “lead mediator” on any given topic. Modeling good behavior is important, and you don’t want to get into a power struggle in front of the clients. With one of you chosen as the lead mediator, you’ve also agreed that the other mediator will follow that lead. This can be a painful process for second mediators who are used to being leaders, but it’s a necessary process. If the second mediator has an issue with the direction, techniques, or tone used in the mediation, either wait for the end of the session, a break, or call a mediators’ caucus to discuss it. Don’t criticize each other in session, and if you caucus, don’t take too much time away for the session. The second mediator can be the lead next time around.
The second mediator’s job is as important, if not as “glamorous” as the lead mediator’s job. While the lead mediator is busy talking and worrying about what to do next, the second mediator can observe the parties’ body language, interject when the process seems to be breaking down, be thinking of alternative methods of conflict resolution in case the lead mediator wishes to change direction, and give the lead mediator feedback after the session.
As you get more comfortable working together as mediators, think about ways you can consciously model good behavior. This is especially helpful for divorce mediations with a male and female mediator because the clients can watch a man and a woman working together constructively. Demonstrate active listening techniques, and acknowledge good ideas between each other. There may be moments when you disagree with each other, and how you handle those situations can be a great demonstration to clients of affirmative ways of communicating about disagreements and working toward a mutually agreeable solution.
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Reprinted with permission of David Kuroda, LCSW:
David Kuroda, LCSW
Mediation – Counseling
21535 Hawthorne Boulevard, Suite 585
Torrance CA 90503
310-540-9128
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
“On Track to Excellence – Optimizing Your Career” Conference
May 1-4, 2002
Advantages and Disadvantages of Co-Mediation
A Therapist’s Perspective
Advantage 1.Maintaining the relationship with the clients. Often when a marriage counseling case becomes a divorce case, the mental health professional ends the relationship with the couple. Occasionally, one of the parties may continue in individual counseling, but usually the decision to divorce also marks the end of the therapeutic relationship. With co-mediation, the therapist can bring in an attorney and continue to provide services to the couple.
Advantage 2.Higher fees and more income. Through the association with an attorney, the higher fees of the attorney can justify higher fees for the therapist who is working with the attorney. Generally, attorneys charge a higher hourly rate than therapists. By working with an attorney, the mental health professional can charge and justify higher fees. Expansion of one’s practice to include mediation can be a source of increased income.
Advantage 3.Enhanced reputation in the family law community and more referrals for counseling. An association with a respected attorney brings increased credibility and familiarity. Attorneys are much more likely to refer to mental health professionals they know and even more so, to people they have actually worked with. This would be even more true for the attorney with whom the therapist works as a co-mediator.
Advantage 4.Increased knowledge and skills in divorce cases. Considerable learning about family law occurs by working with attorneys in actual cases. Direct exposure to discussions of child custody, spousal and child support, case law and court procedures provide valuable information to the practitioner. The skilled clinician who is also familiar with attorneys, court procedures and basic family law has more to offer than the clinician is only skilled.
Disadvatange 1.Loss of control and autonomy. For therapists who essentially work alone, it can be a daunting task to find a congenial, collegial and compatible attorney with whom to work. Attorneys aren’t usually retiring, passive professionals who always want to know how you want to approach clients or issues. There are basic differences between the attorney who is taught the importance of “client control” and the mental health professional who believes in client self-determination.
Disadvantage 2. Increased complexity and need for greater planning and coordination. A practice that needs to involve the schedules of two persons, two personalities and two professions can be daunting. Even setting up appointment times for four people to be in the same place at the same time is taxing.
Disadvantage 3.Higher costs for the clients. Paying two professionals their hourly rates can be very costly. For most people, the question of “how much is this going to cost?” is highly relevant. If the fees are reduced for the co-mediation, it means a lower fee than usual for each of the professionals. In once case, the initial mediation session included both parents, their attorneys, and two mediators. The combined hourly rate made it pretty pricey for the litigants.
Disadvantage 4. Friendships and reputations can be lost. Sometimes friendships are severely strained by working too closely together. The old adage that familiarity breeds contempt is relevant for many working relationships. Absences often make for fonder hearts.
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Mediation Partnership Agreement Checklist
You may not need all of these provisions, but it helps to know all of the issues.
Practical Issues